Posted by Matthew Barber on Thursday, July 18th, 2013

In the previous post, Aymenn al-Tamimi discussed developments in the relationship between two primary al-Qa’ida affiliates operating in Syria: Jabhat al-Nusra, and the ISIS. Through his analysis he concluded that in some areas the distinction between Jabhat al-Nusra and the Islamic State of Iraq and al-Sham (ISIS) is blurry, while in other areas the two seem to visibly operate as distinctly separate groups. He also believes that though a “grand ideological clash” between the two groups is not impossible, it is premature to point to one at present. Now, in part two, Aymenn delves into the growth of ISIS power in specific communities and discusses the plausibility of predicted FSA – ISIS confrontation.

The Islamic State of Iraq and ash-Sham Expands Into Rural Northern Syria

by Aymenn Jawad al-Tamimi for Syria Comment

Introduction

In a post for Jihadology a few weeks back, I identified how the Islamic State of Iraq and ash-Sham (ISIS) was playing an important role in the fighting on the outskirts of the city of Aleppo and in the surrounding countryside. Since that time, it has become apparent that the group has been seeking to expand outwards and to consolidate control over outlying towns in both the Aleppo and Idlib regions, particularly those of strategic importance along or near the border with Turkey.

Azaz

This initiative has already served to foster division. For example, in the town of Azaz, which is in close proximity to the Turkish border, a protest ocurred on July 1 against ISIS’ entry into the town and its attempt to establish headquarters there. Yet on July 5, Azaz saw a counter-rally in favor of ISIS featuring a slogan common for such demonstrations—‘Labbayka ya Allah’ (‘I am at your service, God’)—accompanied by conspicuous numbers of ISIS flags.

It should be noted that this pattern of division—between those members of Syrian society who support ISIS vs. those who do not—is also observed in the city of Aleppo itself, where ISIS supporters have generally held separate rallies from those of other demonstrators. (I have found one notable exception: a rally on June 4 for the then-besieged city of Qusayr in the area of al-Firdus, featuring both ISIS and Free Syrian Army [FSA] flags).

Resentment over the ISIS presence in Azaz grows. One notable outlet for this disapproving sentiment is a youth activist Facebook page called ‘The Youth of Aleppo—Azaz’ which posted the following status: ‘We ask the Islamic State of Iraq and ash-Sham to establish their state from Iraq [meaning ‘in Iraq’?] since the system of prostitution [there] has not yet fallen.’

As for other towns, here is a photo of the ISIS headquarters in the northern border town of Jarabulus. The banner reads: ‘The Islamic State of Iraq and ash-Sham: Province of Aleppo. Emirate of Jarabulus.’

One activist page on Facebook called ‘Jabhat al-Nusra does not represent me’ claims the following to give context to the first photo: ‘Photo from Jarabulus following the seizure of it by al-Qa’ida after battles with the FSA. It is said that ISIS then killed scores of civilians, among them children, during al-Qa’ida’s attempt to occupy the town.’

In a similar vein, on June 15, the Arabic news outlet al-Waie News claimed to cite a local source in Jarabulus on clashes between ISIS and a rebel battalion known as the ‘Family of Jādir,’ which uses the FSA flag.

The source claimed that the clashes started after a member of ISIS was wounded during a round of celebratory gunfire that followed a concord reached between the two groups, giving rise to a renewed violent battle between ISIS and the Family of Jādir for fifteen hours, resulting in ISIS’ seizure of the town, as well as the killing of one ISIS fighter and several from the Family of Jādir.

On 13 June, the leader of the Family of Jādir—Yusuf al-Jādir—released video testimony in which he claimed that ISIS launched an attack on the home of Ahmad al-Jādir and then began shooting at dozens of innocent civilians, resulting in the deaths of several children: among them, Mahmoud Kerkaz, Sheikho Shawish, Ibrahim al-Ahmad, and a young Kurdish girl. He continues by documenting other alleged acts of ISIS aggression in the town.

It thus appears that ISIS seized control of Jarabulus by force. One thing that is important to note from the opposing testimony is the issue of naming. The source for al-Waie News from Jarabulus merely sees ISIS as a new name for Jabhat al-Nusra (JN) in the town, and Yusuf al-Jādir likewise deems the two names interchangeable.

Thus, even if my formulation for the city of Aleppo itself—that ISIS and JN are two separate entities—applies here, the perception of at least some residents of the town nevertheless differs. As in Raqqah, the two may well be interchangeable in Jarabulus.

The concept of interchangeability could make sense here in light of the fact that JN has had an active presence in the northern Turkish border areas in the past (cf. clashes with Farouq Battalions in April on the border in Raqqah Governorate). Certainly, Jarabulus has been known for a JN presence in the past: here is a video of a JN-led rally in Jarabulus from December 14, 2012, featuring the chant of ‘We are Anṣar Allah.’

In this context, one should also note a revealing report from the Damascus Bureau, which actually visited Jarabulus. The reporter, Youssef Shaikho, explains that Jabhat al-Nusra in Jarabulus supported the announcement of ISIS, and most of its fighters in the town are native Syrians, providing a notable exception to the media narrative of ISIS as a group solely composed of foreign fighters.

Further blurring the lines of group-alignment and public sentiment, not all those who, like al-Jādir, use the FSA flag in Jarabulus are necessarily opposed to ISIS’ ideological vision. For example, here is a Facebook activist page from Jarabulus that uses the FSA flag. Yet it has put up a status that laments the loss of the Khilafa (Caliphate) and denounces the UN and its decision-making as a mere front for occupation.

In terms of the reasons behind the Jādir-ISIS clashes, one should be cautious about presenting them as a simple ideological battle. It rather seems to have been a power struggle for control of an important border area. The Kurdish PYD, as the Damascus Bureau notes, also has a small activist presence in Jarabulus, yet it has been left untouched and tolerated by ISIS.

Another town in rural Aleppo where ISIS is establishing its presence is al-Bab. On July 5, the outlet Saḍa ash-Sham al-Islami put up a set of photos of a meeting for Dawah held by the ISIS in al-Bab. [Da’wa means “invitation” and often refers to proselytism—the inviting of others to join Islam. In this case, it refers to outreach to Muslims to strengthen their faith.]

In contrast to what appears to have been a more aggressive approach in Jarabulus, ISIS seems to be engaging in an active outreach effort to the population of al-Bab. Thus, the local outlet al-Bab Press reported that ISIS is running school bus services for children who have seen their education disrupted for many months by Assad regime bomb attacks. A local FB page in al-Bab also gave an account last month from an ISIS fighter of clashes between ISIS and Assad regime soldiers aided by Hezbollah fighters in the wider Aleppo area.

Prior to Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi’s announcement of the formation of ISIS in early April, Manbij had been known for an active JN presence in alliance with Ahrar ash-Sham, who together took on the Farouq Battalions in violent clashes in the town at the beginning of the month, resulting in the expulsion of the Farouq Battalions from Manbij.

The clashes began after Ahrar ash-Sham had arrested a certain Abu Khaldun, a friend of the leader of the Farouq Battalions in Manbij. Ahrar ash-Sham and its allies justified the arrest on the grounds that this man had been one of the leading criminal figures in Manbij and had to be put on trial by the Shari’a committee in Aleppo, while emphasizing that there was no fundamental conflict between them and those under the banner of the FSA.

Following the defeat of the Farouq Battalions, Ahrar ash-Sham held a victory rally in Manbij on 6 April with dozens of supporters and allies, featuring the al-Qa’ida flag and a banner reading ‘The Ummah wants an Islamic Khilafa.’ The person who uploaded the video described it as being held in celebration of the expulsion of ‘gangs of thieves’- a common charge leveled against the Farouq Battalions in the north, which unlike the Ikhwaan-aligned Homs division lack ties to any major Islamist groups.

On a side note, the rally itself should illustrate that those who posit a strict dichotomy between supposedly ‘nationalist’ Salafists in Ahrar ash-Sham as opposed to transnational jihadists are mistaken. This rally in Manbij and Ahrar ash-Sham’s statement on JN’s pledge of allegiance to al-Qa’ida show that concepts of the transnational ummah that supersedes “artificial borders” and the nation-state of Syria are often blurred in Ahrar ash-Sham’s ideological thought.

Of course, one also must not generalize in the opposite direction and portray all of Ahrar ash-Sham as bent on an international Khilafa. Yet whenever non-Islamists protest against groups like ISIS, as a rule Ahrar ash-Sham can be expected to side with the latter (cf. the case of Raqqah which I documented last month).

In the context of Manbij, therefore, one should not be surprised about a blurring of distinction between Ahrar ash-Sham’s support base and what is now known as the ISIS presence. Indeed, it is also apparent that there is another virtual mirror front of ISIS active in Manbij: namely, Ansar al-Khilafa, which is composed of a mix of native Syrians and foreign fighters, though exact proportions are unclear.

Ansar al-Khilafa is most prominent in rural Aleppo and Latakia. In the April rally led by Ahrar ash-Sham, it is likely that there were Ansar al-Khilafa supporters among the crowd. Here is a recent mural put up in Manbij in support of the group:

ad-Dana

The final case we come to on the subject of ISIS’ expansion is that of ad-Dana in Idlib, near the border with Turkey. Here, a protest rally is said to have taken place against ISIS (though no video footage of it has emerged so far), sparking violent clashes. Yet it is the only case where we have a mainstream media outlet allowing ISIS to give its full side of the story thanks to an al-Jazeera English report (H/T: @khalidelmousoui) from the town. In the report, ISIS fighters claimed that those denouncing their presence were actually agents of the Assad regime.

However, it appears that this testimony is contradicted in an account given by pro-ISIS activists in Idlib, who denounced the clashes as ‘the work of some of the apostates of the Free Army.’ Meanwhile, a pro-ISIS Twitter user complained at the time of the clashes that the ‘malicious Free Army’ was besieging ISIS and expressed concerns about the beginnings of a ‘Sahwa’ movement against ISIS.

As of now, the al-Jazeera report says that ISIS is the only remaining armed group in the town. This is corroborated by local Idlib activist testimony that there are now no armed clashes in the town and reconciliation initiatives are underway. At the same time, claims that ISIS executed dozens of supporters of those identifying under the banner of the FSA—stemming chiefly from an ad-Dana rebel leader’s testimony were denied.

That said, both the rebel leader whose testimony is given by the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights and the al-Jazeera report corroborate each other on the ISIS fighters as being from outside Syria.

In short, these various cases illustrate ISIS’ growing power in the north of Syria. ISIS is clearly not a force to be dismissed as marginal without any real support on the ground, even as its presence is undoubtedly sparking backlash in many areas. Above all, these recent developments as regards ISIS’ expansion vindicate to an extent my prediction in March in a guest post for Syria Commentabout the emergence and establishment of jihadist strongholds in the north and east of Syria.

In terms of the future, one needs to be skeptical of the narrative being put out by Supreme Military Command (SMC) supporters of a looming, grand-scale FSA effort to take on ISIS in the north of Syria in a fundamental clash of ideologies. Resentment at the ideological level is more to be expected from civilian protestors rather than armed rebels.

One should particularly note my distinction here between SMC supporters and those in general who go by the banner of the FSA. While SMC supporters would like to portray all of those under the banner of FSA as opposed to ISIS, the evidence speaks otherwise, exemplified in this recent statement by an FSA military council in Aleppo denying rumors of clashes between their ‘brothers’ in ISIS and JN.

In particular, the reports attempting to portray JN in open conflict with ISIS are building on a narrative stemming from a Reuters piece in which JN was portrayed as a group of native Syrians disillusioned with the machinations of the foreign fighters of ISIS, hinting at the possibility of JN teaming up with other rebels to take on ISIS.

The motivation for spreading rumors about ISIS is quite apparent: namely, the SMC’s bid to secure Western arms, which will then be supposedly used to take on what Western nations like the UK perceive to be the number-one threat emanating from Syria.

In any case, the current PR war between SMC supporters and ISIS supporters will continue. Feeling the pressure, the latter have recently announced the formation of a new forum intended to counter purported media disinformation about the group. Thus can the exchange of claims and counter-claims be expected to intensify. Ascertaining the full truth short of getting on the ground will remain elusive.

Aymenn Jawad Al-Tamimi is a Shillman-Ginsburg Fellow at the Middle East Forum and a student at Brasenose College, Oxford University. His website is http://www.aymennjawad.org. Follow on Twitter at @ajaltamimi

In Syria now, there is currency that is fake, type 1000 lira, printed in Qurdaha,people has to be careful, you will recognize it by the absence of syria map under the letter R

Mr. Tamimi
You said
” which has allegedly executed three young men recently on charges of rape and murder”
what should be the punishment for rape or murder?

in your conclusion you said several members from FSA are co operating with JN or ISIS, since they all has one goal and that is to remove Bashar, what is wrong with cooperation?
انا و اخي علئ ابن عمي, انا و ابن عمي علئ الغريب

UNTIL last month the leader of Ahrar al-Sham (the Free Men of Syria), a large Salafist rebel group, went by a nom de guerre. Then on June 8th Hassan Aboud revealed his real name in an interview with Al Jazeera, the Qatari satellite television channel. Days later he attended a Salafist shindig in Cairo. Slowly but surely his group, which may number 10,000-20,000 fighters and leads the Syrian Islamic Front, a coalition of like-minded rebel groups, has become the most powerful outfit battling against President Bashar Assad.
….
Some see the hand of Qatar behind its burgeoning success. “Ahrar al-Sham and its front is clearly positioning itself as an Islamist alternative to the disorganised moderate rebel fighters,” says Charles Lister of Jane’s Terrorism and Insurgency Centre in London
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Hitherto the most prominent of the extreme Islamist groups has been Jabhat al-Nusra, which may have 7,000 or so fighters. But recently it has been bogged down in a power struggle with al-Qaeda in Iraq, led by Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi. After Jabhat al-Nusra’s leaders, led by Abu Muhammad al-Golani, refused to submit to his rule, the group split: a more extreme branch merged with the Iraqi brethren, forming the Islamic State of Iraq and al-Sham. It has recently clashed with other Syrian groups, something Ahrar al-Sham has so far avoided. As Jabhat al-Nusra’s clout has weakened, Ahrar al-Sham’s has grown stronger.

There will be a new store opening soon in the neighborhood where I live in Damascus.

The owner obviously has put some money and efforts for renovation. It is quite a heart-warming scene in a city where sound of explosion is still rolling through the sky.

The reality is people nowadays are feeling more sense of security. Hence more confidence and hope.

Painful economy is still hurting people and posing as a threat. But it is positioning itself with some opportunities. After the situation gets a little stabilized, reconstruction will be put into plan. Many people are eagerly waiting to come back if they feel safe to do so.

The truth is after SAA clears up Homs, the Syrian lira might become stronger against dollar.

McCain to hold up Dempsey for renewal as top military officer after clash over Syria

…
With all due respect, Senator, you’re asking me to agree that we’ve been inactive, and we have not been inactive,” Dempsey replied.

“We have not been inactive,” McCain said, to which Dempsey affirmed.

“This again gives validity to my concern,” McCain said. “Because, obviously, we may have — not been — inactive, but any observer knows that Bashar Assad is prevailing on the battlefield. One hundred thousand people have been killed. Hezbollah is there … And the situation is — much more dire than it was two years ago when you and Admiral Winnefeld came to office. And so, your answer is that we haven’t been inactive.”

McCain then asked the question a third time, prompting Dempsey to testify he’s in favor of building a “moderate opposition” and then supporting it. The question to support that with “kinetic strike” is ultimately up for elected officials to make and not for the senior military leader of the nation, Dempsey said.
…

The source maintains that Ahmad al-Jarba’s trek to the highest post in the Coalition was planned from A to Z in the corridors of Saudi intelligence. The man, the source said, has a big rap sheet kept by Qatari, Saudi, and Syrian security services, for acts involving all three countries, and in the past, the three intelligence agencies had even coordinated operations in his pursuit.

The Syrian source provided particulars involving Jarba that were mentioned in official Syrian security records, as a fugitive wanted for criminal offenses, including fraud, corruption, and even assassination plots that were not carried out. According to the source, records show that Riyadh handed over “the suspect Ahmad al-Jarba” to Damascus in 2008, on charges of drug trafficking, in accordance with an extradition agreement between Saudi and Syrian security services (which was suspended at the beginning of the Syrian crisis). Jarba was tried and sentenced to a prison term at the time.

It is likely that Bandar bargained with several blocks in the Coalition over instating Jarba as the president of the opposition group in return for delivering game-changing weapons.
The records also reveal another entry involving Jarba, which the Qatari security services undoubtedly also have in their records, as the source said: After the coup staged by the outgoing Emir of Qatar Hamad against his father Khalifa al-Thani, the latter’s foreign minister fled to Syria, where he became a vocal supporter for restoring the previous emir. At the time, according to the records, Emir Hamad’s people asked Ahmad al-Jarba to assassinate the exiled Qatari foreign minister in Syria. Al-Jarba even received payment after accepting to carry out the mission, the source claimed.

However, Jarba chose instead to expose the plot to the deposed Emir Khalifa, for which he also received a financial reward. The issue proved to have huge political consequences, prompting the Syrian state security agency to investigate and ultimately detain Jarba for a total of five months on counts of fraud.

According to another entry in the Syrian security records, Jarba approached the Libyan ambassador in Damascus shortly after Muammar Gaddafi declared himself Africa’s “king of kings,” and persuaded the ambassador to use Jarba’s help in sending Syrian tribal delegations to Libya to pledge allegiance to Gaddafi. Jarba had introduced himself to the Libyan leadership as the chief of the Shammar tribe of the Jazirah region in Syria (Upper Mesopotamia).

In 2004, he was looking for ways to gain access to the late Lebanese Prime Minister Rafik Hariri, as one of the elders of the Shammar clan, which has branches from Syria, Jordan, and Iraq, all the way to Saudi Arabia. Before Jarba dropped off the grid in Syria, he was being pursued by the Syrian authorities for running brothels in Damascus and Hasakah.

The Secret Decisions of the Doha Meeting

Recently, Saudi intelligence, under Bandar’s direct supervision, began touting Jarba as the chief of the Syrian branch of the Shammar tribe, presenting him inside the Coalition as their pointman for arms purchases. It is likely that Bandar bargained with several blocks in the Coalition over instating Jarba as the president of the opposition group in return for delivering game-changing weapons.

The information available to the Syrian security services indicates that Jarba’s appointment came following pressure from Saudi Arabia during the most recent meeting held by the countries backing the Syrian opposition in Doha. Secret agreements were reached, including one between Paris and Riyadh over the purchase and delivery of advanced weapons for the benefit of the opposition.
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Concerning the claim that Jarba controls groups in Hasakah and Qamishli, it is common knowledge in Upper Mesopotamia that the man has been banished by not only his tribe, but even his close family. His father had distanced himself from his son ever since he was exposed for running brothels, even though Jarba tried at the time to claim that he was only running a company to help young men and women marry. Meanwhile, his brother Zaid is a regime supporter, while his older brother Nawwaf has shunned politics altogether.

“I also wonder how/why some Californian/non Syrian/non Muslims can write 33,000 tweets about this conflict.”

One tweet at a time, not very difficult to figure out how Twitter works. Maybe you can google it if you are still having a hard time knowing how one can tweet…

“That is certainly not a hobby, that is a paid work.”

I wonder what your SimoHypocrometer thinks of those that write 30 posts a day on here most of it filled with disinformation and propaganda intent on distracting you from the truth.

Well Sami imagine you write a tweet. If the tweets have some quality it takes at the best 5 minutes to produce one. So in one hour you could write about 10 tweets (+ a 10 minute coffee break). To produce 33 thousand tweets would take in minimum 3,300 hours and if we would want real substance and quality in those tweets the needed time would be over 6,000 hours. Anyway the needed effort to produce such amounts of tweets is equal to hours used for several years in a full time job. Would a Californian,nonSyrian,nonMuslim do it without payment? I seriously doubt it.

Of course the activity “rule” is valid on both sides. If a Syrian government supporter has the opportunity to use a full working day frequently to write comments he/she needs “financing”.

What I still don’t understand is you are babbling on about US crimes as an excuse to cover up soviet crimes? Juxtaposing two crimes beside each other will not challenge the veracity of the first crime. What happened in Laos is criminal as is what happened in Afghanistan with the Soviet invasion.

About what Russian crimes are you babbling? About that 95 percent of WW2 war prisoners in Russia were killed? That is pure propaganda, show us the proof. Surely Soviets made crimes under Stalin, worse than Nazis, but Soviet Union doesn’t exist any more. USA exists and is escalating its violence. Soviet Union went to Afghanistan invited there by the Afghanistan official government. USA went to Afghanistan uninvited. Well the “difference” was not big because the communist government of Afghanistan was not very “democratic”, but then Afghanistan was relative equal among genders. When USA and Saudis interfered not any more…

Btw what are your thoughts about what transpired in Chechnya? Do you have the figures of how much armaments was launched at Grozny to bring peace and prosperity Putin style there?

Sami you are so well “informed” (as usual). The first Chechen war was in 1995 (mainly) and the second started in August 1999. Putin became president in May 2000 at the time when the second war ended. Blaming Putin is a bit over-scaled propaganda making. Let us remember, that Chechnya was and is a part of the state of Russia and has been that for a couple of hundred years. So the wars were internal affairs. Laos as you know (I suppose you know) is not a part of USA.

What happened in Laos and in Chechnya can’t be compared in the massiveness. Russia did not carpet bomb Chechnya with B-52s halve a million times. Grozny is now rebuilt and people seem to be rather OK with the present situation. What has USA done with Laos to compensate what it did? Nothing or very little. USA used against Laos more bombs than were used in total in the whole WW2 and 700,000 killed by USA (without declaring a war). Imagine, that is real “democracy promoting added with women’s rights advocating”.

US is the main and essential cause of the total destruction of syrian cities, society and populations. US is the one that could have ended easily the leadership of Assad by a simple covert operation but they did not want Assad to die.

US could have provided weapons to the rebels when they were still basically an army called FSA without jihadists, but the north american bastards in power did not want to help end the crisis.

They say now Syria is a 10 years issue. They have created all the conditions and avoided any solution than lets the syrian issue be a 10 years issue. Never US politics were so dirty as in Syria.

The result will be a Middle East full of revengers with islamic inspiration who will fight til death to revenge the atrocities of US and Russia supported dictatorships.

Shame on the US, and their ignorant populations washing their brains and hearts inside their naif temples while make themselves believe they do not understand how they let criminals kill innocent people. Even for me being a christian what is coming in the middle east is the best lesson for hipocrisy and crime organized from east and west. Never before US politics were so low and unmoral.

Look! In The Sky…It’s a Drone,It’s a Plane, It’s…World War III On The Horizon
July 18, 2013 Al Qaeda, Attack, Barack Obama, General Dempsey, hamas, Hezbollah, Islam, Kinetic Strike, military, Muslim, Muslims, Syria, Terrorist, More and more air defenses and Super Sonic missiles !! Book your tickets now! Spaces are limited! Do not miss the interesting show !!!! war, WWIII
General Dempsey, Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, testified today before a committee in the Senate that the Obama Administration is considering using military force in the Syrian civil war, and that the United States military leadership is drawing up plans to carry out such a mission if the order is given. General Dempsey stated during Congressional testimony as well, that, “…I have provided the President with options for the use of force in Syria.”

Dempsey made mention of a “kinetic strike”, which translates into English as an offensive move, using missiles, drones, airstrikes, and even boots on the ground. General Dempsey did not elaborate further other than saying that the decision for the United States to use military force in Syria, “…is a decision for elected U.S. officials to make.”

General Dempsey is up for a vote among the Senate Armed Services Committee for a second term as the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs, which is the highest military rank/position in the nation, so he is choosing his words carefully. If he is voted in for a second term, count on seeing a military operation against Syria rather quickly. After the necessary CYA verbal maneuvering is done by the Chairman and he gets the nod, the gloves with Syria will most likely come off.

The main concern for most people is three-fold when it comes to military engagement with Syria: 1.) Getting the United States involved in another war that will take years to end in the Middle East, .2) Russia and Iran’s heavy involvement and support of the Syrian regime lead by Bashir al-Assad, and 3.) the fact that Hezbollah, Hamas, and Al-Qaeda will be involved in the fight against US, which could lead to a collapse of the entire Middle East and lead to a power grab that will usher in the third world war.

US are already in position with the infrastructure to act, but they are also surrounded, with Russia on top.

Power said she will “work tirelessly to defend” Israel in an organization where many countries don’t recognize it, and to lobby for the Jewish state to have a rotating seat on the Security Council for the first time.

“For a disgraced and fired EX-moderator you should know better not to insult people (SimoHurtta)”

Disgraced and fired you say? Hmmmmm….

1. JOSHUA LANDIS said:

SC’s moderator has resigned. He got tired. Didn’t appreciate being attacked, and is opening a restaurant. All good reasons. I thank him and wish him luck. He was a great help to us all. Moderating in the midst of a war is not easy. In a few days I will be leaving on a trip and then vacation in Vermont for three weeks, so SC will go on vacation with me.

Best to all SCers and thanks for their patience over the next month. Joshua

As for the alleged insult how exactly is questioning someones personal hypocrisy meter an insult?

If anything reading your pathetic and juvenile post filled with worthless accusations not substantiated with anything factual is an insult to anyone who bothered reading you posts intelligence. Furthermore it is very telling how pathetically low someone such as yourself can be when they write under numerous names (Hello DON and ANN) and throws these worthless accusations that I was fired and disgraced when it cannot be further from the truth.

lastly you are not my kin, do NOT call me your son, and If I was your son I would disown you.

…
In Syria, the Muslim Brotherhood’s real powerbase today lies strictly in the Idlib countryside, specifically Jabal al-Zawiya, where they still command a sizable community of loyalists. Their influence in the conservative city of Hama, the city to suffer most from their 1982 adventure, had long vanished. Hama today is no longer a “Brotherhood stronghold.” The secular opposition leader Fidaa Hourani, who treated the wounded at her field hospital in early 2011, was more popular in Hama than the entire Brotherhood leadership combined. She was a secular, and not only that, the daughter of Akram al-Hourani, the father of socialism in modern Syria, who had combated the Brotherhood during the golden years of Syrian democracy, back in the ’50s.

Hama notables grumbled when recalling how while their sons were being led to the gallows in 1982, Brotherhood leaders had packed their bags and left to safe exile, leaving the city to sort out its own mess. They blamed the Brotherhood for dragging Syria into an ill-planned confrontation, which led to the killing of anywhere between 15,000-30,000 civilians, without calculating what the regime’s response would be. The Brotherhood knew that popular sentiment in Hama, although anti-regime, was nevertheless not pro-Brotherhood in 2011-2012. They also realized that if the Syrians went to the polls, unlike Egypt, the Brotherhood would never win a landslide victory. Syrian Christians, who constitute 10 percent of the population, would never vote for them, nor would Alawites (12 percent), Druze (3 percent), Kurds (15 percent), and Bedouin tribes (10 percent). Even among the country’s 75 percent Sunnis, not everybody is in favor of a theocracy, certainly not after how they performed in Egypt.
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The Muslim Brotherhood is now fighting a battle on several fronts: with Egyptian officers in Cairo, with Bashar al-Assad in Damascus, with Mohammad Abbas in Palestine, and with Saudi Arabia in the Arab and Muslim World. This is more than they can chew. If they don’t try to extinguish fires, they will collapse. Both the Egyptian and Syrian Brothers have to put down their guns, sink into self-reflection, study their mistakes, and eventually re-invent themselves after the Egyptian fiasco.

Whatever Omen chooses to do on his/her time is his/her business and not mine and neither it is yours. Unless you work for some intelligence agency and building a file on people here….

“About that 95 percent of WW2 war prisoners in Russia were killed?”

That was not my argument, and you bringing in someone else’s argument and trying to paint as mine is telling of how limited your knowledge on the subject is. I was arguing how juxtaposing to crimes beside each other in order to excuse one of them is an amoral and shallow argument.

“Well the “difference” was not big because the communist government of Afghanistan was not very “democratic”, but then Afghanistan was relative equal among genders.”

If by equal you mean equally suppressed by a foreign entity that was seen as an occupation force by the majority of the Afghans then you are correct…

“Putin became president in May 2000 at the time when the second war ended.”

Who was PM of Russia in 1999? Is his name perhaps Vladimir Putin? Who made a name for himself as a ” law-and-order image and his unrelenting approach to the renewed crisis in the North Caucasus, which started when the Islamic International Brigade based in Chechnya invaded a neighboring region starting the War in Dagestan, soon combined to raise Putin’s popularity and allowed him to overtake all rivals.”?

Your lack of knowledge on this subject is quickly exposing you as the amateur you are.

“Grozny is now rebuilt and people seem to be rather OK with the present situation.”

This would be an extremely laughable statement were it not at the expense of those living without their family members as a direct result of Russian hegemony in the Caucus. What’s next you telling us how much Makhachkala is a tourist destination while disregarding the fact their own Football Club trains and lives many miles away in Moscow for safety reasons and only go to Makhachkala by plane on game days and are escorted by armed guards to their games?

Why is the attack on Sami and making up stories about his ” disgraceful” exit?
If every anti regime Syrian had the same mind set as Sami we would not have had a war like the one in Syria today.
Defending Baathist records is something but ignoring the diseases 43 years oppression and corruption brought to Syria is unethical at least.
Putin , an ex KGB chief, is few steps ahead of Baathists with his treatment of political dissidents:
KIROV, Russia | Thu Jul 18, 2013 8:05pm EDT
(Reuters) – Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny was sentenced to five years in jail for theft on Thursday, an unexpectedly tough punishment which supporters said proved President Vladimir Putin was a dictator ruling by repression.
Assad’s favorite charge against potential political leaders:
محاولة قلب النظام بالقوه و نشر أكاذيب تضعف الوحده الوطنيه و تصيب الوطن بالوهن

“The gift will be offered to the Supreme Military Council of the Syrian National Coalition, which the UK recognises as the sole legitimate representatives of the Syrian people,” he added in a written statement to parliament.

Obama considering military power in Syria, top general tells Senate
Chairman of joint chiefs Martin Dempsey tells armed services committee that he has provided Obama with options for use of force
( Dempsey gave a vague assessment of how the USA can change the situation on the ground to help rebels, I still think the USA will not get directly involved in the war )

October 20th, 2008thepeoplesvoice.org features news, information, and opinion about issues which affect our* freedoms, the environment, and the quality of life. Now more than ever ‘we the people’ need to be aware of the issues, and the actions of our leaders.

The source maintains that Ahmad al-Jarba’s trek to the highest post in the Coalition was planned from A to Z in the corridors of Saudi intelligence. The man, the source said, has a big rap sheet kept by Qatari, Saudi, and Syrian security services, for acts involving all three countries, and in the past, the three intelligence agencies had even coordinated operations in his pursuit.

The Syrian source provided particulars involving Jarba that were mentioned in official Syrian security records, as a fugitive wanted for criminal offenses, including fraud, corruption, and even assassination plots that were not carried out. According to the source, records show that Riyadh handed over “the suspect Ahmad al-Jarba” to Damascus in 2008, on charges of drug trafficking, in accordance with an extradition agreement between Saudi and Syrian security services (which was suspended at the beginning of the Syrian crisis). Jarba was tried and sentenced to a prison term at the time.

It is likely that Bandar bargained with several blocks in the Coalition over instating Jarba as the president of the opposition group in return for delivering game-changing weapons. The records also reveal another entry involving Jarba, which the Qatari security services undoubtedly also have in their records, as the source said: After the coup staged by the outgoing Emir of Qatar Hamad against his father Khalifa al-Thani, the latter’s foreign minister fled to Syria, where he became a vocal supporter for restoring the previous emir. At the time, according to the records, Emir Hamad’s people asked Ahmad al-Jarba to assassinate the exiled Qatari foreign minister in Syria. Al-Jarba even received payment after accepting to carry out the mission, the source claimed.
However, Jarba chose instead to expose the plot to the deposed Emir Khalifa, for which he also received a financial reward. The issue proved to have huge political consequences, prompting the Syrian state security agency to investigate and ultimately detain Jarba for a total of five months on counts of fraud.

According to another entry in the Syrian security records, Jarba approached the Libyan ambassador in Damascus shortly after Muammar Gaddafi declared himself Africa’s “king of kings,” and persuaded the ambassador to use Jarba’s help in sending Syrian tribal delegations to Libya to pledge allegiance to Gaddafi. Jarba had introduced himself to the Libyan leadership as the chief of the Shammar tribe of the Jazirah region in Syria (Upper Mesopotamia).

In 2004, he was looking for ways to gain access to the late Lebanese Prime Minister Rafik Hariri, as one of the elders of the Shammar clan, which has branches from Syria, Jordan, and Iraq, all the way to Saudi Arabia. Before Jarba dropped off the grid in Syria, he was being pursued by the Syrian authorities for running brothels in Damascus and Hasakah.

US will not arm the rebels with advanced weapons,,and would never allow the rebels to control chemical weapons, any US involvement means direct US troops and the most likely place to enter Syria is from the south,Jordan, US prefer to shrink Assad control to limit him to the coastal area, but will not allow him to have control over area adjacent to HA

In my opinion this is a very accurate assessment of the Assad’s government. Not perfect, and with a lot defects, particularly when it comes to the Mukhabarat and corruption, yet compared with other Arab and ME countries it comes out shining, particularly when it comes to social welfare, security, stability and foreign policy.

You never fail to end your comments by some thing damning about the Syrian government. What is your take on M. Alkhafagi comment?

In Bashar’s early years, I hated him very much, as he promised reforms and failed to deliver, and particularly when he imprisoned and convicted the members of the Damascus spring. Now when I see the ease with which the opposition individuals can be bought with Gulf money, sit and conspire with Western nations against their own country, and even give assurances of non belligerence to Israel on Israeli TV. I come to the conclusion that may be the Syrian government knew something about those personalities I did not know.

I also ask myself, what would be the punishment in the US for some one who accepts money and weapons from the enemies, provide them with intelligence and openly ask the enemy to attack the US?

Ziad,
The uprising was inevitable, what made it bloody was the regime harsh response, its refusal to compromise and of course the interference of outside forces which allowed Syria to become a haven for jihadists and thugs.
I think replacing Assad Sr with Assad Jr was a big mistake and keeping security forces and the army as a private militia to protect the regime is a disgrace.
Syria needed reform desperately, what Syrians got instead was a war that divided people, impoverished the population, increased hate and despair and killed any real chance of a national revival, at least in the short-term.
Things got so bad that even level-headed and moderate Syrians are seriously thinking that Syria needs to be divided in a way or the other, I believe we will see that materializes in the next few months-years. In my case, what I want first and foremost is a stop to the blood shed and an opportunity for Syrians to live in peace and dignity. I could not care less who is president but I know that Assad departure will help to start the healing process, I also realize that there are some alawites (few)who do not want Assad to stay and Sunnis (a sizable minority) who still support him, that in a strange way provides some hope that Syrians may one day put their country before their sectarian loyalty.

The US foreign policy is 100 % designed from Tel Aviv and in total coordination with HA and Assad’s interests. US people has nothing to say in this whole conflict, they are under instructions from Israel militar intelligence.

All of them have decided to destroy Syria in a 10 years process. Assad has agreed with the only condition to remain in power.

People of Jaraboulus, Manbij and Al Bab are people from bedouin origins. These towns were medium to large villages only 15 years ago. In this period of time they have become cities due to the urbanization of tens of thousands of (arab – nomad and sedentarian bedouins). They are very poor in terms of education, not to mention in terms of political complexity. They were very baddly hitten by reform taken by Assad Government when it cancelled all subsidies to agriculture and then poverty skyrocketed. The people of northern Syria have nothing to lose, they come from the dust and will fight for their dignity without limitations.

The fact of Nusra or other primary political structures leading the revolution is not strange. Only when a normal state emerges than can help people in their bussiness and lands then they will be under control again.

According to my sources Assad/Makhlouf mafia own 20 % of Dubai luxury real state. This is the result of methodical stealing from the syrian people for long decades… while syrian children starve at their homes under Assad Scuds.

You do not write now because you are sleeping. And why are you sleeping because you are living in the US. This is your paradox and your hipocrisy. You are beneffiting from the west welfare and defending the syrian people torture and massacre by an illegitimate dictator.

GHUFRAN SAID
The list of intellectual thugs keeps growing on this forum, I have no respect for anybody who justifies the murder of political opponents who did not commit a crime punishable by death, the assassination of Jimmo and other non violent political activists , as wrong as they might be, is what made it next to impossible for this uprising to win wide public support, people have realized that rebels are worse than the regime and that they failed to unify or come up with any credible plan to save Syria.

So the rebels beloved by the opposition brutally murdered Jimmo because he had vehemently defended the regime through speeches, talk shows, public debate and writing.

Apparently this contradicts what the opposition has been righteously claiming they are fighting for: human rights, political freedom and most of all against the brutality by the regime to oppress general public and silence dissent.

It did not take long before the opposition no longer could hide their hypocrisy and gloat the death of Jimmo. We did not even need to prod them or set a trap. It is just a matter of time to catch them red-handed.

To me, the opposition have turned into a complete sham and quite disgraceful. Those true progressive and moderate opposition members either have been sidelined long time ago or have retreated from the destructive organization.

No good news for the rebels. No one and nothing in the opposition can earn slight respect from Syrians. What a mess!

The contradiction is only apparent. We want civil rights and freedoms and will get it by peacefull means when democracy is operating and we can chose who rules and who holds the army.

But when dictatorship is in power massacring its own population democracy rules are not applied only jungle rules and those criminals will be eroded from earth as well as all the jonkies promoting the with words or facts the massacre of syrian villages, towns and cities.

In your opinion Assad and HA bulleting peacefull demonstrations merit all the respect from syrians. Let me laugh at you.

Ewa Jasiewicz of the New Statesman reports on the plight of the relief efforts in Syria.

We discuss the idea of a joint news-behind-the-news project that can profile struggles that mainstream media ignore. . . ‘It’s a good idea but we do not have the capacity. We literally do not have the people on the ground. Too many Syrian activists are outside in Turkey or Lebanon. They need to be here’.

Apple mini wrote
So the rebels beloved by the opposition brutally murdered Jimmo

Is she living in this world? she is obviously completely out of touch, did she not know that his wife and her brother killed him and the rebels in Syria has nothing to do with this murder?,it amazes me how she talks like the world is stupid, who is really the stupid,the hateful,the lier? she should fix her brain and check the news before she makes such lies.

Sandrow
Ghufran is always quick to blame the opposition before knowing the truth,how could a person do that and makes a fool of himself is beyond any imagination, he should be ashamed of himself if he has dignity, he should appologize , but Ghufran being so pro regime and pretending he is not is no diferent than apple Mini who after everyone knew the truth yet they still lie and blame the rebels for such murder, it is amazing, they are not normal and it is very very silly.

The US foreign policy is 100 % designed from Tel Aviv and in total coordination with HA and Assad’s interests. US people has nothing to say in this whole conflict, they are under instructions from Israel militar intelligence.

All of them have decided to destroy Syria in a 10 years process. Assad has agreed with the only condition to remain in power.

Sandro Loewe,

I think your heart is in the right place, however, your post slips into the usual arab conspiracy realm, which is unfortunate.

I agree with you that the US and the rest of the world have failed to help people suffering around the world, especially in Syria.

Why is it arabs like you only call out the US and Tel Aviv? Why should Israel risk another war? Where were arabs when Syria’s Lebanese goons were sending thousands of rockets into Israel? And where exactly is the Arab League? Doesn’t Saudi Arabia, the Gulf States and Egypt have a military?

Anyway, here’s what Russia and China have done in the UN, yet they receive no criticism from you. The US can’t police the world by herself. And that’s just the truth.

I loved this video about ALYAHUD, it is nice. But the issue is not so simple minded. I am blaming US for the following facts that make US different from any other country in the world:

* US is the only super power with vetoe than can be called a democracy

* US is main responsible for the mess in Irak. If it was a mistake they must now amend it by acting when the street is asking to, like is the case in Syria. If it was not a mistake then they must complete the job instead of leaving the whole middle east in chaos and fire.

* US is declaring they will help the rebels but at the same time they know perfectly they will not because it is completely against Israel and US strategy in the middle east. They are cheating the world opinion.

* For the first time in history US was expected to defend a popular movement for the good of freedom and democracy in the arab countries and they failed cowardly or strategically.

* US is not “another one”. US is until now (probably not in the future) the only hope for people under dictatorships because despite all abuses commited by US Army they still represent a better political system than that of Iran, Russia, China and many more and owns the army to destroy any dictatorship.

If US refuse this responsability then just let Obama declare US is not the country to rely on the UN doctrine of defending populations from dictatorships abuses. Many in Syria discovered this reality in the first months of the Revolution, the rest is discovering it now.

In the current balance of powers it is not possible to envision an end to the syrian crisis. It can take 10 years until Syria is totally destroyed, their population reduced to half of what it was and the rest outside the country and probaly the national territory divided in three or four autonomous or independent countries.

Another option, more dramatical even, could be the clash of powers with the total destruction of Damascus, and the eventual use of chemical or even nuclear weapons in Damascus and countryside by Iran and / or Israel.

In any event we must not forget to congratulate the great God/Prophet Assad II of Syria. Without him none of these achievements would have been possible.

I hear what you are saying, and again, I am ALSO disappointed with the US, but you are putting waaaaay to much of the onus on the US gov’t. Yes we are a superpower, but the UNSC has more than one seat. Russia and China are obviously thwarting what the rest of the world wants to do for Syria.

And when you (or others) talk about Syria, mentioning Israel is futile. Israel has no preference for who “wins”. The winner in this Civil War will not be pro-Israel. The opposite. Israel is sitting on her hands, watching with binoculars, and helping a few injured Syrians. What is going on in Syria is a violent war where arabs and muslims are killing each other. Certainly, not the first time this has happened.

So in summary, the US gets criticized for everything. As I mentioned to Mr. Majedkhaldoun many moons ago, the ME is a region where “Good Deeds never go Unpunished”. You are asking the US to “do an Iraq” in Syria, save a country, so that the US can be blamed in the future when people continue getting killed. And of course, when the US stays out of Syria, the US gets criticized as well.

That’s part of being American and Jewish: you always get criticized. Russia, China and the Arab League? I envy them! They never get criticized!

Most westerners living under democracy systems commit the mistake of blaming populations under dictatorship of using the Blame Game. It is very easy to say this qhen your rights and life are guaranteed. You seem to ingore that when you are under a dictatorship that has lasted 40 years like that of Gadafi, Assad or many others with the suppoort of western countries you cannot get rid of it by peacefull demostrations but you need the help of those who supported the dictator like it was clearly showed in Lybia.

I think it is very easy to undertstand, and you do not need any example since history is happening in front of you day after day.

Yes there is blame and there is a responsabilty on those who supported Mubarak, Assad, Saleh, Gadafi, and all those motherfxxx. And specially critical responsability on those who call themselves “democracies”.

Yes there is blame and there is a responsabilty on those who supported Mubarak, Assad, Saleh, Gadafi, and all those motherfxxx. And specially critical responsability on those who call themselves “democracies”.

Sandro Loewe,

OK. But please recall, the US Gov’t never “supported” Gadafi or Assad. We supported Mubarak, but frankly, I don’t know if he was “that bad”, and he stepped down after a month or two. He wasn’t a “Muqawamista” (hat tip, QN).

Democracies are countries that are free and their representatives are elected. This doesn’t necessarily require that the US govt enter agreements with only countries that have similar governments. Be that Saudi Arabia, China, or Brazil. But the US should strive to do so.

Turkey has been greatly disturbed by a recent statement from the Democratic Union Party (PYD) — a political offshoot of the terrorist Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK) in Syria, which announced that it will declare autonomy in the country’s north.

Such a development would mean Turkey being neighbors with the PKK, with which it is trying to make a settlement to end decades-long terrorism in the country. Most Turkish columnists on Friday allocated their columns to the likelihood of the establishment of an autonomous Kurdish state in Syria’s north and how such a development will influence the course of the settlement process.

Can the opposition still hope for a ‘game-changer’ other than Geneva II?

– The FSA undermined by Islamists is no more a force to reckon.
– Qatar, the major supporter of the opposition has stepped aside
– Egypt, another valuable supporter, has turned its back
– The SNC amputated from its Moslem Brotherhood members is dying from slow death
– Turkey is faced with a renewal of the PKK threats on the border
– the UK and France are backtracking on sending weapons
– the USA priority is no more the toppling of Assad but the containment of the Islamist extremists and the chemical weapons
– The SAA is gradually winning back ‘liberated’ area

Amid reports that they plan to declare an Islamic state, jihadi rebels have clashed with FSA and Kurdish fighters, and provoked a civilian backlash with their oppressive brand of Islam.
…
Aymenn Jawad al-Tamimi, a UK-based researcher who monitors jihadi statements and activity in Syria for the Jihadology website, said that he had found “nothing on ISIS pages to corroborate the idea of a planned declaration for a northern state in Syria after Ramadan,” as asserted by the FSA official.

Tamimi, however, did not rule out the possibility that ISIS could be planning such a move, given its “expansion” in northern Syria and its rule in certain areas.

It is possible that the release of these claims forms part of a prelude to retaliatory action by FSA elements in Syria against the jihadis. Certainly, sources close to the rebels confirm that they view such a clash to be an eventual inevitability.

It should also be noted that ISIS and Jabhat al-Nusra are themselves involved in a lengthy feud of their own, over who is the authentic representative of al-Qaida in Syria.

Therefore, in northern Syria, in addition to the war between the Assad regime and the rebellion, there are at least three additional, discernible conflicts taking place.

The al-Qaida-supporting jihadis are fighting the Kurdish defense organization.

The jihadis are also engaging in the killing of other rebel leaders, and anti-jihadi oppositionists are organizing against them in the areas they control.

Lastly, the jihadis are also in dispute with one another, though not (yet) violently.

It is also possible, given the Assad regime’s track record and its interests, that some among the jihadi ranks are linked to the regime.

Thus, in addition to metastasizing beyond its borders, the Syrian civil war is also giving birth to a variety of new conflicts within the country itself.

Does anyone know why US-Libya relations turned sour in the first place?

Reverse,

A quick google search and my fuzzy memory recalls a couple of Libyan terrorist events: the Berlin discotheque bombing and, of course, the Pan Am 103 bombing. May also have been Gad-fly’s obnoxious wardrobe.

Just when it began becoming apparent that the US and its allies were facing serious regional setbacks in the Middle East and North Africa, reports began circulating about an explosion in Latakia. Unverified reports, originating from anonymous sources in Israel in early July 2013, began claiming that Tel Aviv had launched an attack against the Syrian port of Latakia that caused a massive explosion. As the rumours began to circulate in the media, it was dubiously claimed that the Israeli attacks were launched against shipments of Russian-made S-300 air defence systems that were in the process of being delivered to Syria by the Kremlin. US officials would enter the picture by deliberately leaking more information about what happened in Latakia by claiming that Israel used its air force to bomb the port there to destroy a military depot filled with Russian-made Yakhont land-to-sea anti-ship missiles.

Then, on July 15, RT’s Paula Slier would report from Tel Aviv that Israel had attacked Latakia by using a Turkish military base. This would upset the Turkish government, which would deny it and say anyone making the claims was involved in an “act of betrayal.” In response to the Russian report, Turkish officials would up the ante by claiming that the Russian anti-ship missiles in the Syrian port were destined for Hezbollah in Lebanon and that the US and Israel had coordinated the attacks by holding meetings in Turkey with the anti-government militias operating inside Syria. Uzi Mahnaimi would complicate the matter by reporting through the British press that the Israeli attacks were launched from a German-built Dolphin from the sea, which essentially vindicated Turkey by refuting the claim that a Turkish base was used by the Israelis.

What has to be understood is that countries like Turkey and Saudi Arabia conceal their collaboration with Tel Aviv due to the heavy opposition against the Israeli occupation of Palestine among their respective societies. What is also important to note is that a Turkish jet was downed in 2012 by Syria when it was following a route that was used by Israeli jets near the Syrian-Turkish border. The use of this aerial route by Tel Aviv has never really been challenged by Turkey. It is also part of an important pattern that shows how close the tactics used by Israel and Turkey against Syria are.

The worst think about US position is that they not only have stopped helping FSA and Syrian Coalition but probably are working behind the scenes with Russia and Assad Mafia to find a middle sollution to protect their interests that have nothing to do with syrian people’s interests. Consequently absolutely ignoring sovereign syrian people’s demands.

The licences revoked by the UK include components for armoured personnel carriers, radio equipment, machine gun components, components for tracked armoured infantry vehicles and communications equipment for tanks.

Mr Cable said he had taken the decision after getting advice from the Foreign Office.

“We are deeply concerned about the situation in Egypt and the events which have led to the deaths of protesters.

“All licences for exports of controlled goods to Egypt have been assessed on a case-by-case basis against a range of internationally agreed, stringent criteria which take into account the circumstances at the time the licence application was made.

“However, as a result of the changing situation in Egypt we have conducted a review of UK export licences to this country.

“Whilst we have no reports of British equipment being used in the unrest in Egypt we have taken the decision to revoke five licences.”

The rivalries _ along with the efforts by extremist foreign fighters to impose their strict interpretation of Islam in areas they control _ are chipping away at the movement’s popularity in Syria at a time when the regime is making significant advances on the ground.

The infighting, which exploded into the open in the country’s rebel-held north in recent days, is contributing to a sense across many parts of Syria that the revolution has faltered. It threatens to fracture an opposition movement that has been plagued by divisions from the start.

“The group has also circulated an alleged statement from a local council in the town of Tel Abyaḍ in Raqqah Governorate claiming that the ISIS has confiscated internationally-donated generators intended to provide drinking water for the residents of the town.

On the other hand, ISIS is attempting some outreach to the locals of Azaz, offering Qur’an and Sunnah recitation competitions—among other religious activities—for the population during Ramaḍān.”

Yes, we take their water, but we give them the opportunity to recite the Sunnah instead!

“Options on the table” are narrowing for the USA and the West in Syria: Watch Al Qaeda expand and create a Islamists haven in Syria or accept that the Syrian Army is the only warrant that this will not happen.

The war in Syria increasingly threatens U.S. interests in the region and may spawn future terrorist attacks against the U.S. and European allies, a top U.S. intelligence official said.

The war is providing both a rallying point and a training ground for radical Islamists from other nations, according to Matthew Olsen, director of the government’s National Counterterrorism Center. Their numbers are increasing and the radicals, such as those joining the al-Nusra Front, an offshoot of the terrorist group al-Qaeda in Iraq, are now “the most capable fighting force within the opposition” to Syrian President Bashar al-Assad, he said.

Olsen and other speakers yesterday at the Aspen Security Forum in Aspen, Colorado, pointed to growing stakes for the U.S. in Syria, even as President Barack Obama has been reluctant to get more involved. The U.S. has a national security interest in seeing the war end soon in a way that doesn’t empower Islamic radicals, if that’s possible, they said.

“Syria has become really the predominant jihadist battlefield in the world,’” Olsen said. “We see foreign fighters going from Western Europe and, in a small number of cases, from the United States to Syria to fight for the opposition.”
…
Al-Qaeda’s leader, Ayman al-Zawahiri, has long sought to gain control of territory as the terror group had in Afghanistan before the U.S. invasion, said McLaughlin. One of al-Qaeda’s stated goals is the re-establishment of a caliphate across the Mideast and North Africa as there was in the early days of Islam.
Terrorist Dream

“Wherever he’s hiding right now, he’s probably looking at Syria and saying ‘this is my dream come true,’ because probably one part of Syria is going to end up in the hands of people like that,” McLaughlin said, referring to Zawahiri.

It is really strange how supporters of Assad are very optimistic and positive about the sitaution in Syria. Taking in consideration that Syria is very near to disappear and that Assad will be killed sooner or later it sounds at least curious.

They do not know that by destroying the opposition they destroy Syria’s options to survive.

So we’re ten days into Ramadan and the regime ‘victories’ seem to be drying up (perhaps it’s only me but we aren’t hearing much from that front).

So presumably, while the regime is bogged down in it’s Homs offensive, elsewhere the rebels are advancing in the south (I posted yesterday – Nawa City) and also in Aleppo [again see yesterdays comment]. The Tawheed brigade (Aleppo) seems to be strengthening (as I posted a few comments back) so it’s worse news from the regime point of view vis a vis the Aleppo state of play.

hhassan140
The report tells him Jabhat al-Nusra’s leader is suspected to be a mukhabarat stooge. He replied he met Al Joulani many times. He said: “Al Joulani is from a prominent Damascene family and a top-notch jihadi. He is charismatic and you immediately admire him if you meet him”.

It was with great concern that we heard about the Israeli missile attack in the Syrian port of Latakia earlier this month. The attack targeted a delivery of Russian anti-ship missiles.

We were waiting for a strategic response that would answer with this provocative attack that took advantage of the Arab world’s current weakness due to regional upheavals and civil wars.

[…]

We strongly condemn the use of Syrian warplanes against civilians and we strongly condemn destroying neighbourhoods – we have taken this position on the Syrian crisis from day one and we will stick to it. But we will, not for one minute, hesitate in standing up against any Israeli aggression on Syria.

He was also getting ready to set up a bank for African nation so they didn’t have to go to imf or world bank and his bank wasn’t going to use dollars. This reason more than anything set the machine in motion. South Amerika has done the same thing under the late hugo no dollars. Russia and China no longer use dollar when trade between each other. This currency war is being played out in the back ground of the noise machine.

I sure hope the news about Abdeaziz Alkhayyer is wrong, he was peaceful opposition, Ghufran told us three months ago that he will be released soon, ofcourse Ghufran news are not correct but we had hope, today we heared bad news I really hope they are wrong

You resigned. So what does that make you a quitter? Didn’t appreciate being attacked. Well Boo Hoo, they’re still attacking you as a poster. I do love that restaurant fig leaf Landis handed you. Was that your idea or his? 😀

BEIRUT (AP) — Mortar shells struck near a major Shiite shrine outside Damascus on Friday, killing its caretaker in an attack that threatens to further escalate sectarian tensions in Syria’s civil war, the government and activists said.

State-run news agency SANA said shells fired be rebels landed “in the vicinity” of the revered Sayida Zeinab shrine, killing Anas Roumani, the shrine’s administrative director. Several people were wounded in the explosion, SANA said.

Protection of the ornate, golden-domed mosque has become a rallying cry for Shiite fighters backing Assad, raising the stakes in a conflict that is increasingly being fought along sectarian lines.

Salim Idris will visit Washington next week,I think he will be disappointed,as Obama is not ready for a pirourtte, US is more likely to change the goverment in Iraq and bring Sunni dictator than to change Bashar.
kissinger said Syria was artificial state , created to facilitate the french control,and he prefers that Syria gets divided,the problem with dividing Syria is the small states that will developed,can not survive and they have to join neighbouring states, may be northern Syria will join Turkey, may be Houran will join Jordan and the east will join alAnbar which will demand to seperate from the rest of Iraq, the US will not like that,it is against the american security concerns.
That is why I believe at the end military american intervention is inevitable to keep the country togather.

And there is something America could do to pressure him. The most powerful inducement for Mr. Assad to reach an acceptable compromise would be a loss of support from Hezbollah, the Lebanon-based, Iranian-financed Shiite militant group. In Lebanon, popular anger over Hezbollah’s intervention in Syria is rising, and the United States must exploit this opportunity, even if it means negotiating directly with Iran to rein in its Lebanese proxy.
…
The way to Hezbollah’s heart is through Iran. The Obama administration should bite the admittedly hard bullet and start cultivating Iran as a participant in negotiations for a peace deal in Syria. Iran’s newly elected moderate president, Hassan Rowhani, wants better relations with pro-rebel Saudi Arabia. And despite Iran’s insistence that its Syria policy hasn’t changed, Mr. Rowhani is likely to be less obstructionist than his predecessors and could open up space for genuine compromise. America should also be receptive to power-sharing scenarios that preserve a role for Mr. Assad’s fellow Alawites in a new Syrian government.
…

The U.S. and European Union are seeing an increasing number of radicalized young Muslims going to Syria to fight, a development that raises the danger that they will return to conduct terrorist attacks at home.

The war is providing both a rallying point and a training ground for radical Islamists from other nations, according to Matthew Olsen, director of the U.S. government’s National Counterterrorism Center. Their numbers are increasing and the radicals, such as those joining the al-Nusra Front, an offshoot of the terrorist group al-Qaeda in Iraq, are now “the most capable fighting force within the opposition” to Syrian President Bashar al-Assad, he said.

“Syria has become really the predominant jihadist battlefield in the world,” Olsen said at the Aspen Security Forum in Aspen, Colorado. “We see foreign fighters going from Western Europe and, in a small number of cases, from the United States to Syria to fight for the opposition.”

Most of those from Europe are self-radicalized and traveling on their own initiative, as opposed to being recruited by a radical network, de Kerchove said.

He called it “at bit surprising” that they are going to Syria, to fight other Muslims, rather than going the Mali, where France has intervened militarily to push back advances by Islamic radicals. That may be the case because travel is easier to Syria, through Turkey, and because many of the young radicals are more attuned to fighting in urban conditions rather than in Mali’s vast desert territory, he said.

Turkey Beefs Up Military Presence On The Syria Border While US Considers Use Of Military Force

Turkey is beefing up its military presence near Syria border while the US is considering the use of military force in Syria and the former UK Army chief said: We risk war with Syria . At the same time, there is report that Libyan weapons and foreign fighters are fuelling blood shed in Syria .

Citing Ihlas News Agency a Hurriyet Daily News report [1] said:

Turkey is beefing up its military presence along the Syrian border following clashes between People’s Defense Units (YPG), the militant wing of the Democratic Union Party (PYD), and al-Qaeda linked al-Nusra Front.

Turkish F-16 jets and unmanned aerial vehicles (UAV) were scrambled from their base in the southeastern province of Diyarbakir for patrolling over the border town of Ras al-Ayn.

YPG and al-Nusra Front have been engaged in a fight for three days in the Syrian town of Ras al-Ayn, near the Turkish border town of Ceylanpinar in the southeastern province of Sanliurfa.

The Turkish Armed Forces (TSK) also dispatched soldiers and tanks to the border.

“BARACK OBAMA: there are elements within the Middle East who see this entirely through the prism of a Shia/Sunni conflict and want the United States to simply take the side of the Sunnis and that I do not think serves American interests.”

that reads as a tacit admission the west profits more from having a shia friendly regime.

Tunis — Libyan weapons and foreign fighters are increasingly finding their way to the front lines of the Syrian conflict, where tens of thousands of civilians have died over three years of war.

A number of recent reports have highlighted the leading role played by Libyans in arming rebel fighters in Syria.

“News of the discovery of smuggled weapons from Libya to other countries has become routine for Libyans. It is sounding like the weather bulletin provided by our television stations every day,” Tripoli resident Younes El-Borai said in response to the latest news on arms smuggling.

On June 2nd, Ali Zidan revealed that national security forces in Tobruk had foiled a smuggling operation of dozens of rockets that were on their way to the Egyptian border. Zidan said at the time that these weapons included 10 Milan rockets and about 50 Grad rockets as well as thermal rockets. They were discovered near the border town of Jaghbub.

Earlier this year, the United Nations published a report that noted Libyan weapons were spreading beyond the country’s borders, from Mali to the Levant. The February 15th report from a panel created to investigate breaches of the Libyan arms embargo said weapons were sent from Libya to Syria “through networks and routes passing through either Turkey or northern Lebanon”.

“Transfers of military materiel have been organised from various locations in Libya, including Misrata and Benghazi. The significant size of some shipments and the logistics involved suggest that representatives of the Libyan local authorities might have at least been aware of the transfers, if not actually directly involved,” the UN report stated.

The report also noted Syria was a “prominent destination for Libyan fighters” who have “joined brigades as individuals or through networks to support the Syrian opposition”.

The UN cited several specific examples where Libyan equipment was shipped to Syria, including one case where 400 tons of material was transferred from Benghazi to the Syrian opposition aboard the Al Entisar fishing boat.

Abdul Basit Haroun Shehibi, commander of Abu Salim Martyrs’ Brigade, confessed last month to Reuters that he stood behind the largest arms’ shipments that have been transferred from Libya to the rebels in Syria. “These shipments are transported by air to neighbouring countries, and then smuggled across the border,” he said.

Haroun Shehibi, who was a UK resident during the rule of Kadhafi, returned during the Libyan revolution to participate with rebels in toppling the regime. He formed the Abu Slim Martyrs’ Brigade in Benghazi to commemorate the massacre in Abu Slim Prison.

Images posted on Facebook purportedly show him travelling to Syria last August to deliver a shipment of weapons.

Before forming his brigade, Haroun Shehibi joined the “February 17 Brigade” led by Ismael al-Sallabi, who is currently wanted by international justice for his involvement in war crimes.

Young Libyans are also being caught up in the war in Syria. A June report by the Washington Institute for Near East Policy found that more Libyans had died in the Syrian conflict than any other group of foreigners.

Citing data from Flashpoint Global Partners, the think-tank said Libya was “the undisputed leader” in the number of foreigners killed fighting in Syria, representing more than one in five foreign jihadists slain in the fighting.

President Bashar al-Assad of Syria may last far longer than his opponents believe – and with the tacit acceptance of Western leaders anxious to secure new oil routes to Europe via Syria before the fall of the regime. According to a source intimately involved in the possible transition from Baath party power, the Americans, Russians and Europeans are also putting together an agreement that would permit Assad to remain leader of Syria for at least another two years in return for political concessions to Iran and Saudi Arabia in both Lebanon and Iraq.

For its part, Russia would be assured of its continued military base at Tartous in Syria and a relationship with whatever government in Damascus eventually emerges with the support of Iran and Saudi Arabia. Russia’s recent concession – that Assad may not be essential in any future Syrian power structure – is part of a new understanding in the West which may accept Assad’s presidency in return for an agreement that prevents a further decline into civil war.

the prediction about russia cobbling a deal in syria has already come to pass.

SOHR reports several pro-regime People’s Committees’ members killed during the clashes in Homs.

The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights (SOHR) reported that, Syrian rebel fighters killed 12 members of a pro-regime pro-regime People’s Committees clashes overnight in the central city of Homs, and troops responded by shelling them on Friday.

How could the Turkish economy, which has lost most of its foreign currency producing abilities, recreate itself if no more foreign capital flows? How could Turkey import more energy resources, which constitute 25 percent of the country’s total imports? How could Turkey meet the deficit? Amid the current high capital outflows and the plunges in the lira, the government appears to be raising the interest rates, although it does not want to do. The Central Bank has already signaled a rise in the rates by July 23. Turkey is familiar with the relentless clash between interest rates and exchange rates. Turkey has previously seen many times when the economy was cooled down, growth slowed, and unemployment surged, just after periods of relentless clashes between interest rates and exchange rates. It appears to be the last thing, but when the economy is so bad it is not easy to change for the AKP government, which is entering a three-year period of three elections: A local election, a presidential election, and a general election.

http://www.theamericanconservative.com/larison/is-obama-abandoning-syrian-rebels/
…
This points us to the real flaw in Obama’s handling of Syria: he kept making very strong statements of support for the anti-Assad cause that he had no real intention of backing up with anything more than limited aid. Whether he did this because he overestimated how quickly Assad would fall without having to do very much, or if he did this because of some mania to appear to be on the “right side of history” as often as possible, it doesn’t really matter.
…
The question now is whether the administration feels pressured by these charges of “abandonment” to increase its support for the Syrian opposition, or if it sees this as an opportunity to correct the mistake it made last month. This is why last month’s decision was so foolish: it was always bound to disappoint the Syrian opposition because it offered them so little, and it was certain to open the administration to the charge that it was “abandoning” the people that it had pledged to support unless it agreed to do more. Obama should reverse his decision, but he is facing so much criticism for fecklessness that he may feel compelled to continue the current policy that satisfies no one.

By Michael Weisshttp://www.realclearworld.com/articles/2013/07/19/whats_behind_recent_rebel-qaeda_tensions_in_syria_105330-2.html
…
moderate rebel commanders throughout Syria who told them that the Western-backed opposition had lost “a quarter or more of their strength” to the al-Qaeda affiliate. Some 3,000 rebels, according to Ala’a al-Basha, head of the Sayyida Aisha Brigade, had gone over to al-Nusra because of the FSA’s lack of weapons and ammunition.
….
It seems obvious, however, that desperation for cash, guns, and ammunition isn’t the sole motivation behind the SMC’s risky new information war.
Commanders affiliated with Gen. Salim Idris do genuinely sense that the Islamic State is out to get them, and there is demonstrable fighting going on in Idlib right now,
…
The Guardian’s Martin Chulov told me that it is most likely mujahideen who have been responsible for disrupting the tenuous alliance between the FSA and al-Nusra as well as exacerbating internal al-Qaeda tensions.

Al-Julani and his men are brutal extremists, but they’ve also shown themselves to also be savvy wartime economists. As reported by Ghaith Abdul-Ahad, in areas the group controls in the Jazira such as the city of Shadadi, al-Nusra administers oil fields, gas refineries, bakeries, water and power plants, healthcare clinics, and sharia courts. It also boasts of how disciplined and centralized its system of finance is in comparison with the FSA, which it depicts as a corrupt gang of brigands willing to steal and sell anything that isn’t bolted to the floor.

And yet, the future isn’t bright for these jihadists, who sense the imminence of a sahwa, or Sunni “awakening,” in Syria, that could see local populations turn against their rule, just as Iraqis did in Anbar Province in the mid-2000s.

(Reuters) – Britain has granted billions of pounds worth of military export licenses for countries such as Syria, Iran and Libya despite proclaiming deep concerns about their human rights records, the British parliament said on Wednesday.

Arab TV star Abbas al Nouri of Syria grieves for his nation
The actor has criticism to go around — for Assad, the rebels and Arab leaders in general. Syria ‘lived through a large lie,’ he says, and is paying the price.

“”This revolution happened so that people could express themselves,” he continues, choosing words carefully between drags on his cigarette. “This regime, which is military in nature, did not have the culture to digest the idea that some people have an opinion.”

“Youssef Abdelke is an internationally acclaimed Syrian artist. He is of revolutionary stock – his father was imprisoned many times during the ‘60s and ‘70s. Abdelke himself, a member of the Communist Labor Party, spent the best part of 1978 to 1980 incarcerated. Following this he spent years in self-imposed exile in Paris, until his nostos in 2005. On his return, he remained candid about his disenchantment with the Syrian condition: “There’s a false image of openness now. The authorities are still controlling everything, and you can’t even hire a cleaning woman without the security services’ permission.”

ان الطيور على اشكالها تقع
Ziad,this is what Hafiz was planing, so barbaric Persia protect his son

What happened in Egypt is an attack against democracy, they did not want democracy to succeed in any Arabic country, this is done by remnants of Mubarak party,to clear Mubarak.it is crime against democracy everywhere

Abdeldeki is a political cartoonist who has been openly opposed to the government since he came back to Syria in 2009 and has been actively supporting the rebellion.
He can be an artist but in a country facing a civil war, he also an agitator.

There a very famous Lebanese singer who joined the Salafists in Lebanon and is now condemned to death.

14. SimoHurtta said: I also wonder how/why some Californian/non Syrian/non Muslims can write 33,000 tweets about this conflict.

you’re a funny little git, you know that? if you must know, i started my twitter account back in 2009, during the iranian uprising. i used to track iranian developments. after that, egypt, then libya.

i don’t know how twitter works, that must be the number of posts i’ve retweeted. i only started to use twitter more to engage in discussion after august, last fall.

why this would be of any interest to you is beyond me. it bores me to tears. there must be hundreds of thousands of westerners also tracking syria. why you think that so unique to me is beyond me. maybe you need to get out more.

i don’t know what fervid fantasy you have running through your head. i’m a nobody with no influence. i don’t even have a blog. the fact your imagination blows me up into some nefarious creature is the height of absurdity. all this demonstrates is how bankrupt your platform is. you are so unable to defend this regime, you have to resort to inventing fiction.

but if it makes you feel better, sure, you’ve unmasked me, you clever thing. i’m a super hybrid of jewish mossad, saudi wahhabi & american cia!

I have walked that long road to freedom. I have tried not to falter; I have made missteps along the way. But I have discovered the secret that after climbing a great hill, one only finds that there are many more hills to climb.

I have taken a moment here to rest, to steal a view of the glorious vista that surrounds me, to look back on the distance I have come.

But I can only rest for a moment, for with freedom comes responsibilities, and I dare not linger, for my long walk is not ended.

Assad thugs in the security forces leave no doubt that the ruling elite in Syria is a mafia, the regime will undoubtedly pay a heavy price if the news about dr AA Alkhayyer are accurate, government sources deny that they detained Khayyer but nobody believes them.
Three members of the internal opposition were arrested today in Tartous which drew criticism from most people even regime supporters in Lebanese media, the emperor may soon lose his last fig leaf, the message is loud and clear:
The regime will imprison and torture political dissidents and kill any Syria who carries a weapon, the desired outcome is leaving Syria with nobody who dares to say NO.
(majed, nobody believes anything you say anymore, you know very weak where I stand on the issue of political prisoners but you can not help trying to look relevant by poking others)

I love the singing band that is being formed against me in jimmo’s case, the singers know as much as everybody else that most media sources,including those of the rebels, blamed anti Assad assassins for the killing, the same ” truth seekers” who are crying foul have blamed the regime for every crime in Syria. There is an investigation that has not ended yet, jimmo’s political position made him an easy target whether the killers had political motivations or not, welcome to the middle east.

”Ziad,this is what Hafiz was planing, so barbaric Persia protect his son”

Majed, your reasoning and argumentation is so outlandish. I don’t know if worth responding to, certainly your comments deserve to be ignored.

You call Persia barbaric, yet the takfiri salafis that you support kill Shia women, men, and children inside mosques every day in the holy month of Ramadan. I personally, when I close my eyes after taraweeh prayers and reflect on human barbarism, the image of those takfiris comes first to my mind.

You may disagree but I think if Khayyer comes out dead Assad will pay a price and the two non Baathists in his government, jamil and Haydar, will be under pressure to resign.
Haydar is a person with good reputation but his statement about refugees is worth nothing when jamil Hassan of the AFI has more power than all of Assad’s cabinet ministers combined:
أكد وزير المصالحة الوطنية السوري علي حيدر «استعداد سوريا لاستقبال اللاجئين السوريين، وأن جميع الأبواب مفتوحة لهذا الموضوع وفقاً للضمانات التي يطلبونها، أكانت ضمانات داخلية أم خارجية أي من الأمم المتحدة» وذلك خلال لقائه النائب اللبناني ميشال عون.

Yet the same would be true about Jammo if he were truly killed by opponents of the regime. It turned his wife killed him. If one were to follow the same logic; he was an agitator as well was he not? What a barbaric thing to condemn the other for thinking and for saying differences of opinion. Neither Jammo nor anyone else deserves to be killed or harmed for voicing an opinion.

But as I said before, killing someone for having a different opinion than yours and expressing it remains a crime. This is the essence of the criminal mafiosi retarded stupid brutal barbaric regime that we have that ” in a time of war” the truth or even for the sake of argument a difference of opinion is to be punished by death or torture or imprisonment.

For whoever agreed that the regime is in the right? It is and was and will remain the wrong. It is waging an immoral and illegal and illegitimate war on the people.

It is NOT a democracy, it is NOT based on liberal economy, it is not a MERITOCRACY, it is not based on INDEPENDENT JUSTICE, it is not based on FREEDOM OF THE PRESS, it is not based on SEPARATION OF POWERS, it is not based on THE CONSENT OF THE PEOPLE, it is not BASED ON MULTIPLE PARTIES, it is not based on PEACEFUL CHANGE OF POLITICAL SYSTEM, it is not even based on AN EQUALITY OF CITIZENS IN RIGTHS AND OBLIGATIONS, it is not A STELLAR SUCCESS IN ANYTHING: fighting Israel, liberating the Golan, educating the people, providing services, providing health prevention, providing housing, preventing graft, preventing pollution, preventing corruption, and now it is using the most barbaric methods including the use of chemical weapons to remain in power on a burning garbage dump.

This is a prime example of a regime’s thug thinking and the total absence of any drop of humanity. This is the reflection of a regime that has treated the people as animals and reminds me of the leader of Romania who called the people worms and cockroaches. It also has become a rabid animal driven by hate and fueled by violence.

Well the germs and the rats and the worms and the cockroaches are coming in droves to drive the regime back to the hell where it came from.

What a bunch of losers and yes d-p lickers. Sorry Syrian Hamster for the plagiarism but could not resist. They now descended from boot lickers in my mind to d-p lickers indeed.

What next, the iPad is going to have an official ” Lord of the Seat” as the Kings of England and France had their nobility wipe their ass after their morning bowel movements?. It was a most prized position for at that moment, favors were granted just as the bowels were moving. I guess, that kind of leader deserves that kind of following.

Today 69 years ago a resistance group manned mainly by militants and high government heads tried to kill Hitler in an attempt to safe Germany and to end the war. Unfortunately Hitler survived the bomb attack, not for the first time though, adding to his own proclaimed vision that he was a chosen leader. In the same night many of the leading figures in the resistance were killed, many others faced humiliating fast court sessions in which the verdict was always prewritten. Roland Freisler the main judge became famous for his rants, and I have added a link for some minutes of the show trials , which were only filmed for Hitler, as he wished to see his enemies being humiliated for a final time.90 % of the people received a death centance, usually executed just minutes after the verdict. Over 40.000 people were summoned to death by Freisler over his reign of the notorious peoples court.

I would like to add that personally I do respect the resistance group of the 20th July, but I doubt that those men were truly democrats. Many of them were true believers of the Nazi doctrine, and have helped to reinstate the terror of this regime, many from day 1. But as one historian said, remorse at the end could have saved millions of lives.

ZIAD #49 I respect you for admitting that you at one stage felt hatred for Bashar Assad for his lack of reforms.

But there is one thing that you and others seem to flick aside as if it didn’t matter. The thing that’s the deepest and dirtiest betrayal of the Syrian people, the most disastrous thing that’s happened.

That is Bashar Assad handing over Syria’s fate and welfare to Iran and Russia. In doing this he’s recklessly prostituted and debased Syria, selling it out very cheaply.

He rushed to do a deal to help the Assad family and a shrunken circle of cronies stay in power, in return for helping Putin and the Ayatollahs (note I don’t say the Russian and Iranian people) fulfil their own self-interested, short-term, primitive and pointless agendas.

We have been forced to watch the swift outsourcing of responsibility for Syria’s sovereignty, security, independence, dignity, international reputation, decision making, security and future to pariah foreign governments. To outsiders who have no respect or interest in the people of Syria and have shown they are very happy to facilitate the destruction of the country.

The obsessing about the opposition members (hijacked by the MB) and Qatar etc is TINY SCALE, IRRELEVANT and TRANSIENT compared with the Assad regime’s wholesale sellout of Syria’s fate and welfare to serve outsider’s agendas.

Have you considered ZIAD, what would have happened without Assad rushing to rely on foreign intervention by Russia and Iran?

The regime might have been forced to reform and compromise – like you desperately wanted Bashar to do a few years ago. And the Syria might have been saved.

Ghufran said
I think if Khayyer comes out dead Assad will pay a price and the two non Baathists in his government, jamil and Haydar, will be under pressure to resign.
I wonder what can they do,Assad will put them in jail just like he put Al Khayyer in jail, and later he will kill them, they may be under pressure morally to resign, but getting in may be easy, getting out is not so easy, they may have to shut up or face death, brutal dictator like Bashar will not tolerate any desent.

Ziad
You mentioned Takfiri, this word means that we Sunni call Shiaa Kuffar, there is the whole truth in calling your group Kuffar, what we are saying is what God said in Quraan about the Shiaa, read souret Zummar the first page God said

Shiaa consider Ali and Hussein as Walis so God said that you are Kuffar and liers in Quraan, according to you God is takfiri
You call yourself Moslem yet you violate Quraan words. and when we say Shiaa are kuffar and liers we only repeat God words as told in Quraan in souret Zummar

The western coverage of the Syrian war is hypocritical in the extreme. The media sees only the atrocities perpetrated by the government forces. They do not see a child being employed by the rebels to cut off a Syrian soldier’s head, or Abu Sakkar, commander of the Independent Omar al-Farouq Brigade, cutting out a soldier’s heart and liver and putting the heart into his mouth with the exultant cry: “Oh, my heroes of Baba Amr, you slaughter the Alawites and take their hearts out to eat them!”

On 27 May the rebels massacred the Christian village of al-Duvair on the outskirts of Homs. This was just the latest in a genocidal persecution of varied methods: in Khalidiya, Christians and Alawites were imprisoned in a building which was then dynamited. Christians are 10 per cent of the population, Alawites 13 per cent: the Sunni rebels are committed to eliminate 23 per cent of the Syrian people. Up to 400,000 Christians have already fled the country. Who mentions this? Their sufferings do not exist for our “free press”.

When they are sometimes forced to acknowledge such atrocities, they do so only to sanitise them and excuse them. Only last week Senator John McCain remarked: “Horrible things are happening on both sides but with Bashar al-Assad’s forces it is a tactic that they use to intimidate and cow the population.” So what is the purpose of the atrocities committed by the jihadists? Perhaps they are just youthful high spirits? When a child is shot in front of his parents for a chance remark about the Prophet, was that perhaps a manifestation of religious fervour? Senator McCain does not see fit to enlighten us.

the regime will undoubtedly pay a heavy price if the news about dr AA Alkhayyer are accurate, government sources deny that they detained Khayyer but nobody believes them. Three members of the internal opposition were arrested today in Tartous

you said he was arrested before. was he released and the regime re arrested him?

Al-Azhar, not Takfiri Muslims, have clearly said that Shia are Muslims , I do not think we have to wait for the followers of ibn taymia to tell us the ” truth”.
The problem with Takfiri islamists, like some on this blog, is that they used the label
” Kuffar’ to justify discrimination and violence, that makes takfiris , not shia or iran, the biggest enemy of Muslims and a serious threat to peace and unity.
On paper, Takfiri Muslims are against secular dictatorships but in reality they are in the same camp and they fight for power and domination like all dictaorships. Assad and other dictators main selling point is this:
We might be bad but Takfiri Islamists are worse .
Until a third movement gains traction in Muslim countries , those countries are doomed.
Turkey progressed only after a strong secular democracy emerges, Erdogang is trying to reverse that, Egyptians revolted against both types of dictatorships, I hope they succeed,if they do we may start seeing similar movements in other Muslim countries.

Help Syria now. Tomorrow it may be too late
An open letter to friends and leaders of public opinion in the west: current policy is short-sighted and inhumane

“Dear friends,

Three months ago, I left the city of Damascus, where life had become too oppressive, to go to the “liberated” area of East Ghouta. An area that had 2 million inhabitants before the uprising, East Ghouta is now populated by only around one million. It was a base from which the rebels headed towards the capital, but is now completely besieged by the regime’s forces due to renewed support from Russia and Iran, and the arrival of Iran-sponsored Iraqi and Lebanese militias. During the past three months, I have personally witnessed the staggering lack of arms, ammunition, and even food for the fighters. Many of them would get two meals a day at most, and their situation would have been immeasurably worse had they not been local residents, protecting their own towns and families, and living off their own kin.”

What is your opinion about Germany foreign policy? Are people in the streets of Bonn and Berlin proud about letting a whole country and their populations disappear in the hands of a little Hitler? Or is Israel that controls german Middle East policies too?

JUERGEN
The English version of Yassin’s letter first appeared on OTW’s blog (Walls or 7ee6an) with slightly different translation. OTW later linked to the Guardian’s as the “official translation”.

In the meantime, is it true that the Federal Police is accusing a d-p athad spy (Samer S.) in Germany of spying on the syrian oppositions for more than a year?, it turns out that this d-p athad supporter went beyond bootllicking on blogs into active collaboration with the d-p athad spooks in the military attache office of d-p athad embassy. I think it is about time Germany kicks out the criminal staff at that embassy who are spying on and threatening German Citizens of Syrian origin as well as Syrian residents of Germanny, many of whom are refugees from the criminal thug d-p athad and its hyena packs. What a filthy regime and filthy supporters.

Opinions:
All three of them are agreeing this is a civil war but the only militia that even claims to be indigenous -the FSA – is 95% NON-Syrian, according to﻿ a recent German intelligence report. Syrians have no part in this. It’s an invasion by Western/Saudi/Qatari-backed death squads.
* * *
I do not understand why they call it a civil war. The so called opposition are nearly no Syrians and mostly extremists and merceneries from abroad Syria armed by the US and others doing their dirty work like in Iraq before. Most people in Syria are with Assad and the Syrian army. Form the﻿ Syrian perspective they fight terrorism. This is no civil war. Syria is defending itself against an invasion through the west (mostly USA) using reginal extremists groups and merceneries.

I think you can not blame the Germans as a whole for the inaction. People know there is a conflict, but many have long ago stopped understanding the situation. Things may change sooner or later, more and more refugees are coming, by now 16.000 have come,illegally, the 5000 official refugees not counting. They all bring their stories with them, each represent an ambassador for the crimes committed by the regime upon them.

I blame the inaction on the government, the official contacts to the regime were intact until early 2012. Much more could have been done to hurt the regime. Why not pressure the UAE to stop laundry the money of the Assads. Why does the Rifaat clan walking freely enjoying their assets in the streets of London and Paris?
A unified european economic sanction against the Russians would also send a strong signal to Moscow to stop allying with this regime.

Why is there no joint Europe-Turkey relief operations in the borderarea?

Syrian Hamster

I read the plaint against this fella and was surprised to find out that this guy was the one who stole two mobile phones during a demonstration of one of the leading organizers of almost all demonstrations against the regime. He then brought the phones to the Syrian Embassy for examination. Good our government has stopped the embassy to operate normally, my guess nowadays such operations are masterminded in the Iranian and Russian embassy.

Still waiting for the “strategic response” to the humiliating assault on d-p athad’s ammo cache near Lattakia…

JUERGEN
Thanks for the added details. The story i posted did not mention the mobile phone story. So there is also a petty criminal offence. Well petty thievery is definitely part and parcel of the hyena’s mind.

Whatever Omen chooses to do on his/her time is his/her business and not mine and neither it is yours. Unless you work for some intelligence agency and building a file on people here….

Omen and others supporting his/hers Syria (Iran, Egypt etc) “view” are all time accusing those who do the support so much the rebel movement on personal levels and speculating with their motives and backgrounds. Omen him/herself revealed his/her twitter identity by linking to it here on Syria Comment. The characterization (calif.nonsyrian.nonmuslim) on his/her personal Twitter datapage is made by him/herself. He/she has to answer why he/she needed to write that for the whole world to see.

Of course I have the right to wonder in writing how and why a calif.nonSyrian.nonMuslim needs and can write over 32,000 tweets mainly about Syria. As said such a massive effort is not done easily even if much of the tweets are retweets. One needs several years whole time work to produce such amounts remembering, that Omen is active also outside twitter. Like on Syria Comment. Retweeting also means the one finds and reads the original tweet and often makes additional comments. It is not done in “seconds”.

By the way Omen’s name in twitter is now sos (@omen_99), but is still calif.nonSyrian.nonMuslim. It is a bit unclear to me from where comes the new name. Maybe a shortening form
Secretary of State or
Special order sale or maybe
Save our Souls.

If you Sami are so worried about Omen’s activities privacy, maybe you could advice him/her not to reveal so much about him/herself. If Omen wants privacy and anonymity, there is one obvious solution to that. Everybody who is active on some internet’s political “forums” is under the “magnifying glass” of others. Do you know how many times I have been “speculated” why a Finn like me is so interested of events in Middle East? Many times. Why can’t I ask a Californian nonMuslim activist the same? I by the way have written in total 2 tweets and make a daily on the average 2 – 3 comments to different “places”. Some days zero, some days 5 (normal maximum), never tens.

“About that 95 percent of WW2 war prisoners in Russia were killed?”

That was not my argument, and you bringing in someone else’s argument and trying to paint as mine is telling of how limited your knowledge on the subject is. I was arguing how juxtaposing to crimes beside each other in order to excuse one of them is an amoral and shallow argument.

Well you accused me for defending Russia. The only time I did it recently was to that 95% claim made by Observer. I provided the figures (= proof) to show how untrue that claim is. The figures were from public internet pages, the Finnish figures from pages in Finnish. All the time I can read here arguments of the “crimes” made by Iran (Persia like M calls it), Russia, China, Hizbollah, (even) Israel etc. What is the problem if I and others make arguments about US, Western, Saudis etc hypocrisy and “crimes”? Free speech means also the ability to tolerate different opinions (which you and your ideological buddies seem to lack).

“Well the “difference” was not big because the communist government of Afghanistan was not very “democratic”, but then Afghanistan was relative equal among genders.”

If by equal you mean equally suppressed by a foreign entity that was seen as an occupation force by the majority of the Afghans then you are correct…

During communist times Afghanistan had women as ministers, teachers, doctors, helicopter pilots etc. Girls had schools and future. When USA and Saudis with bin Laden appeared to Afghanistan during the 80’s the picture changed. Islamic fundamentalism changed Afghanistan, not Russia. Talebans (donated by Saudis and USA) you know…

“Putin became president in May 2000 at the time when the second war ended.”

Who was PM of Russia in 1999? Is his name perhaps Vladimir Putin? Who made a name for himself as a ” law-and-order image and his unrelenting approach to the renewed crisis in the North Caucasus, which started when the Islamic International Brigade based in Chechnya invaded a neighboring region starting the War in Dagestan, soon combined to raise Putin’s popularity and allowed him to overtake all rivals.”?

Sure Putin was the prime minister, but not during war number one and when the seeds of the conflict were planted. Even the most “liberal” other Russian PM (or president) had reacted to situation exactly with same force. As said Chechnya like Dagestan are parts of Russian Federation (not independent countries) and no Russian leader would/could let their country to begin to disintegrate. Especially important and volatile they see the role of the Muslim regions in the south. To claim that the Chechen wars simply happened to Putin in power are infantile naive western propaganda. We could equally say that US civil war happened to keep A. Lincoln in power.

Sami I have all my life lived near the Russian border, I have visited Russia several times and even know some Russians personally. I suppose I have a clearer picture of what Russia is than those “experts” like you who base your information on American media and propaganda. Surely Russia is no democratic paradise, but it is not a totalitarian dictatorship.

Your lack of knowledge on this subject is quickly exposing you as the amateur you are.

Sami have you really worked here as a moderator? How on earth did they choose a person like you to that job? In Finnish there is a idiom: “Pukki kaalimaan vartijana”, which describes the situation. (translation: “a goat guarding a cabbage patch” meaning the same as in English used “the fox guarding the chicken coop”).

“Grozny is now rebuilt and people seem to be rather OK with the present situation.”

Look at the recent pictures of Grozny using Google and make your own conclusions. Looks pretty impressive to me, certainly more impressive than recent pictures from Detroit. 🙂

This would be an extremely laughable statement were it not at the expense of those living without their family members as a direct result of Russian hegemony in the Caucus. What’s next you telling us how much Makhachkala is a tourist destination while disregarding the fact their own Football Club trains and lives many miles away in Moscow for safety reasons and only go to Makhachkala by plane on game days and are escorted by armed guards to their games?

I suppose important reasons for the FC Anzhi Makhachkala training and living near Moscow are the logistic reasons as much as security issues at home. The competitors in the Russian league are easier to be reached from Moscow (distances in Russia are huge and the better air connections save time). On the other hand do you Sami know who have formed one of the strongest parts of the “larger Russian mafia” (by the way the leadership of Russian Mafia have also Israeli passports)? Chechen mafia, which is said to having contacts to radical Islamic fundamentalists and separatists. Hmmm…

A unified european economic sanction against the Russians would also send a strong signal to Moscow to stop allying with this regime.

Well Jürgen what would happen to EU if Russia would be sanctioned for this? Supporting a regime some EU nations and USA do not like – wow. What if Russians sanctioned Germany for not supporting the Syrian regime and would shut the gas pipes and oil? As signal you know.

Without Russian trade Finland’s like Germany’s economies would collapse in weeks or months. Surely the trade with EU is vital also to Russia. But still.

If the biggest oil and gas producer gets sanctioned, then the prices of oil would sky rocket. If EU would threaten Russia with economical boycotts Russia would make conclusions and focus on longer term to Asia (= China, India). Let us be realists EU needs Russia (its lands, markets and raw materials) desperately. Russia is not Israel or Iran which can piloted with EU and US sanctions with little harm to own economies. Russia is to big and to strong for sanctions.

Juergen!
I advise you to take the scissors and cut off Russia from the map , to obtain a virtual Europe!
you ask:/ Why not pressure the UAE to stop laundry the money of the Assads/:

You must, as a German put all pressure on your German government when you know about the secret contracts with Israel , and when you know about the installation of nuclear missiles in the German Dolphins! You can not look at reality one eye! You are a biased person!I believe that you are a Jewish with Zionist tendencies!

Nothing Assad did, or didn’t do, would have have stopped the war. No amount of reforms would have prevented it. Unless Assad completely changed Syria’s foreign policy there would have been war. There is no Middle East country I can think of where the Western oligarchy has backed democracy and freedom for its people. The Western backers of the “rebels” care nothing for Syrian lives. They will gladly keep sending weapons until 1,000,000 are dead.

FM of Egypt said he will re evaluate Egypt position in regard to Syria, and Egypt is committed to peaceful process.
Egypt needs KSA support financially,we will see how long it will take him to adjust his statement.

This has nothing to do with Atef Najeeb, or any abuses committed by security forces.

Assad could have tortured the entire nation – with the full blessing of the West – as long has he played ball with them on foreign policy.

The Western oligarchy cares nothing for life. Look at Detroit. They let their own people die without health care, without jobs, they allow Wall St. to rob their pensions. Why would they care about a few 100,000 dead Syrians?

Revenir
The circumstances were ripe for such revolution, ,if you study this revolution, it started with these children, who witnessed the Tunisian and Egyptian revolution, people in Deraa and in Horan generally were supportive of Assad many of his army officers were from that area, many of his political advisors, were from this area, Farooq al Shara, Miqdad and others like Rustum Ghazaleh, once their children were tortured and mistreated by Atef Najeeb, they suddenly converted against Assad,that is where the revolution started Assad mishandled this incident in an enviroment that Arab spring was glorified by the media, that was his mistake and that proved that he is inept president with poor judgement

Murat Bilhan, former diplomat and the vice chairman of the Turkish Asian Center for Strategic Studies (TASAM), said in remarks to Today’s Zaman. “Turkey should carefully follow the interests of Russia in the region and should seek for ways to cooperate, as soon as possible”.

With the advantage that Assad’s forces have taken militarily, a scenario of a transition period without him grows more and more remote, making it much more difficult for the opposition to want to sit at the same table with the Syrian regime.

Meanwhile, the recent military coup in Egypt that ousted President Mohammad Morsi and his Muslim Brotherhood government has been a positive development for Russia, in contrast to Turkey’s position on the military intervention. Morsi’s government in Egypt was behind the opposition struggle in Syria, and for the opposition to lose a serious ally in Egypt has surely played into the hands of Russia. The recent military coup, which seems to have erased political gains from the Arab Spring period, is an opportunity for Russia to reconstruct its relations with Egypt. Russia had never looked positively upon the developments that evolved into the Arab Spring in Tunisia, Egypt and Libya.

An issue of contention between Russia and Turkey may be related to a potential Russian assistance to Greek Cyprus in its financial crisis. Analysts say that Russia might consider a financial aid plan for Greek Cyprus in exchange for economic and military gains.

One scenario is that Russian gas giant Gazprom is planning to bail out Nicosia in return for a share in the island’s Aphrodite gas field — believed to hold 200 billion cubic meters of natural gas. Ankara, however, has long warned the Greek Cypriot government against unilateral moves to extract natural gas and oil reserves off Cyprus, saying that the Turkish Cypriots, who run their own state in the north of the island, also have a say on these reserves. Turkish officials have even suggested that if the Greek Cypriot administration insists on grabbing these reserves for itself, then Turkey will intervene militarily.

There is also talk of Russia moving its naval base in Syria to Cyprus in exchange for a bailout. Turkey has also stated its opposition to such scenario, saying this is against international law.

In defending takfiris killing innocent unarmed Shia men, women, and children in their mosques said:“we Sunni call Shiaa Kuffar, there is the whole truth in calling your group Kuffar, what we are saying is what God said in Quraan about the Shiaa,”

For non Arabic readers here is the translation of the Ayah according to Yusuf Ali:

Is it not to Allah that sincere devotion is due? But those who take for protectors other than Allah (say): “We only serve them in order that they may bring us nearer to Allah.” Truly Allah will judge between them in that wherein they differ. But Allah guides not such as are false and ungrateful.

Majed deceptively omits an essential middle phrase to make his argument. What he replaced with “…” says:

CAIRO (AP) – Egypt is reevaluating its relationship with Syria following the military’s ouster of Islamist President Mohammed Morsi, the country’s foreign minister said Saturday.

In his first public comments since becoming Egypt’s top diplomat, Nabil Fahmy said Cairo continues to support the Syrian uprising but that Egypt has no intention of supporting a jihad – or holy war – in Syria.

Since Morsi’s ouster, his critics have accused Syrians living in Egypt of participating in the protests calling for him to be reinstated. Television networks critical of Morsi aired allegations that his Muslim Brotherhood backers were paying Syrian refugees to take part in pro-Morsi protests.

Cairo’s new military-backed interim government swiftly imposed travel restrictions on Syrians, who for decades were able to enter Egypt without a visa.

The arrest of at least six Syrians accused of taking part in violent street clashes further fanned the flames.

“We are neither enemies nor allies with anybody,” Fahmy said of Cairo’s ties with other nations.

Ziad
Your translation is false,
أَلَا لِلَّهِ الدِّينُ الْخَالِصُ
The translation should be the religion and worshipping should be for God ONLY
وَالَّذِينَ اتَّخَذُوا مِنْ دُونِهِ أَوْلِيَاءَ
Those who worship people(who are Zull or Way below God) as Awliyaa,means holy people has connection to God,
Then there is explanatory sentence it explains what these people say, they say we worship those Awliyaa to bring us close to God, God will judge them, but at the end God says
إِنَّ اللَّهَ لَا يَهْدِي مَنْ هُوَ كَاذِبٌ كَفَّار

God will not guide who is a lier and infidel Kafer, this is reference to those wo worship Awliyaa
It is clear that God says those who worship people as Awliyaa are liers and Kuffar

The main problem that you try to deceive people by misinterpreting Quraan, and as in Suret Al Umran God says
فاما الذين في قلوبهم زيغ فيتبعون ما تشابه منه ابتغاء الفتنه
THis interpretation you said is changing the words of God because you want sedition

* We are facing the destruction of a popular peacefull revolution that has become armed revolution.

* Also we see the destruction of a whole country, the displacement of 7.000.000 people. And the death of at least 120.000 more.

* Russia, Iran and HA in Lebanon send all their men and weapons as well as financial aid.

* And design a plan that it is beginning to take shape that will convert Syria and Lebanon into chiite countries without christians and sunnis in the long term like happened in Iran.

But Israel and US cannot do nothing. They could kill Nasralah and Assad in 5 minutes but they cannot do it for unknown reasons. The whole Middle East is going to become a 20 years war between countries and US and Israel cannot do anything and have no interest in doing anything.

I never looked at Bashar as a strong and thoughtful leader, his initial response to Daraa protests and the first two speeches he gave solidified his status as a figurehead dictator who represents a mafia family that makes decisions by consensus, democracy only exists in the inner circle surrounding Assad, that circle does not include the PM-Halaqi but it incudes the chiefs of security services, his brother, his cousin and his uncle.
Bashar lacked the vision, experience and legitimacy to lead a country like Syria, he will be remembered by his actions and inactions which were instrumental in the destruction of the Syrian nation, it will take decades for Syria to stand up again.
“Those who make peaceful revolution impossible will make violent revolution inevitable.”
(1962)”
― John F. Kennedy
This is far more serious than anything we have been arguing about:

SYRIAN KURDS PLAN TEMPORARY GOVERNMENT !!

Syria’s Kurds are planning to create a temporary autonomous government to administer Kurdish regions in the north of the war-torn country, Kurdish officials told Agence France Presse on Friday.
“We think that the crisis in Syria will not end anytime soon, so we need to create democratic self-rule in western Kurdistan,” said Salih Muslim, head of Syria’s Kurdish Democratic Union Party (PYD).
Western Kurdistan refers to Kurdish majority areas in northern Syria, including Hassakah province in the northeast of the country and parts of Aleppo province.
“This has been our project since 2007,” added Muslim, stressing nonetheless that the government would be temporary.
“This is provisional,” he said. “Once there is a broad agreement on the future of Syria, we will put an end to this autonomy.”
Shirzad Izidi, a spokesman for the People’s Council of Western Kurdistan, another Syrian Kurdish group, confirmed the plans and said the Kurdish administration will take measures to organize elections in Kurdish areas.
“There is an idea also to write an interim constitution so that there will be no vacuum,” Izidi told AFP.

Ziad
It is you who is deceiving and fabricating interpretation which are not true
Kazeb is lier and infidel is kuffar
Is it not to Allah that sincere devotion is due,you totally misinterpret the sentence

BEIRUT (AFP) – Syrian Kurdish fighters in the northeast expelled jihadists from a checkpoint on Saturday and seized their weapons and ammunition, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights reported.

The advance comes just days after Kurdish fighters loyal to the Democratic Union Party (PYD) expelled jihadists allied to Al-Nusra Front and the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIS) from the strategic Kurdish town of Ras al-Ain.

In five days of fighting, at least 35 jihadists and 19 Kurdish fighters have been killed, the Britain-based Observatory said.

“Clashes raged during the night from Friday to Saturday, pitting (Kurdish fighters) against Al-Nusra Front, ISIS and other (rebel) groups… near the villages of Tal Alu, Karhuk and Ali Agha,” said the group.

The clashes “ended at 8:00 am (0500 GMT), when the Kurdish popular committees seized control of a… (key) checkpoint” there, said the group.

The Kurdish fighters then seized ammunition, light weapons, a vehicle mounted with a heavy machinegun and a mortar from the jihadists, the Observatory added.

not that i need to tell you this, because you’re pretty cognizant of this already, but you have to learn to read between the lines with these things. who is the author? is he an establishment figure? which interest is he likely to be forwarding, etc.

118. zoo said: Some brilliant New York Times has found the solution to Obama dilemma.

The way to Hezbollah’s heart is through Iran. The Obama administration should bite the admittedly hard bullet and start cultivating Iran as a participant in negotiations for a peace deal in Syria.

i remember being shocked last year when i came across a similar op-eds which insisted the only path to peace was to get iran to buy in. impossible, i thought.

but syria, for monied interests pulling strings, isn’t about human lives but control over oil routes.

only reason assad remains in power is because the west is appeasing iran.

Thousands of Muslims in the Gaza Strip are practicing their holy month of Ramadan this year with the added strain of economic and social hardship, after Egypt shut the Rafah border crossing and the tunnels vital for the import of goods into Gaza.

Adherents usually prepare for Ramadan in advance by storing large amounts of food and drinks, an activity which has become part of the month’s traditions. But Palestinians in Gaza have experienced a lack of food items, fuel and raw materials due to the surprising and abrupt decision by Egypt to shut the tunnels earlier this month following the ouster of President Mohammed Morsi.

Hundreds of people from all social classes gathered at the central market in the old city of Gaza early on the morning of the third day of Ramadan, July 12, to prepare their needs for the day, but vendors say this is one of the worst years the market has witnessed during the month of fasting.

Zoo
Abdelkes arrest is useless. What do they hope to gain from that?
This man was always 150% against this regime. He spent years in prison, years in exile. He was allowed a safe return after his 10 year exile and they even allowed an public exhibition of his work in the Khan Afsad Pasha in Damascus.( well, that was years before the Assads tried to sell the Khan to the Kempinski hotel chain.)A friend who was present at the exhibition told me that Abdelke was upset when he entered the exhibition. On his way he crossed an wedding party congregation. ” How dare they dance and party when this country is so f***** up? I think many famous critics of this regime were never half as angry as him.

, the crucial question is: How do the MB leaders and members perceive the current crisis and what does it mean to the movement’s coherence and solidarity? Surprisingly, it does not seem that the Brotherhood leadership is very bothered or worried about the current confrontation with the army. Indeed, it’s quite the opposite. The movement leaders view this confrontation, at the minimal, as crucial to restore public support and safeguard its internal integration and coherence. It is the only way that the MB can dodge many disputes and divisions over who should be held accountable for the movement’s mistakes over the past year. Moreover, the Brotherhood’s history tells us that the movement thrives under repression. The movement expanded massively and gained political clout under former President Hosni Mubarak despite the systematic repression and exclusion of its members.

Ironically, since it came to power the MB has lost a lot of its credibility and appeal particularly after Morsi’s terrible mistakes over the past year. However, and unlike many might think, the current crackdown against MB leaders would do nothing but enhance their public support and improve their image. The MB has a remarkable record of playing the “victimization” card to broaden its social constituency and network. This was clear after the massacre last week in front of the Republic Guard building in Cairo, which left around 50 MB members dead and 435 injured. Over the past week, I’ve met with dozens of Egyptians who decided to join the MB’s sit-in in Rab’a El-Adawiyya in Nasr City. When I asked one of them why he was there, he forcefully answered: “to protect my vote and defend the oppressed [MB].”

During crisis time, the MB as a social and ideological movement tends to turn inward in order to maintain its unity and solidarity of members. It invokes that tribulation or mehna as a shield to protect the movement from divisions and splits. Indeed, it is the only way the MB could survive the current crisis.

Explosive’ NSA Spying Reports Are Imminent
Journalist Glenn Greenwald says new reports from the trove of NSA data supplied by whistleblower Edward Snowden can be expected in the next few days. Speaking on a German talkshow, he said they would be even “more explosive in Germany” than previous reporting.

As Syrians soldiers are dying of the country and others dying of hunger, nobody needs an ‘artist’ who throw oil on the fire with provocative and demeaning cartoons.
In the circumstances Syria is going through, he should just shut up or go back to France.
Obviously he has not understood that.

“The oldest and most valued US ally is Saudi Arabia — that is where most of the oil is and Saudi is the probably most extreme fundamentalist Islamic tyranny in the world and main US ally. In fact, most of the time the US is supporting radical Islamists against secular nationalists.”

Signaling a return to cooler relations between Egypt and Iran after an attempt at rapprochement under Mursi, Egyptian security forces on Saturday raided the Cairo office of the Iranian Al Alam Arabic satellite channel.

The channel’s director was detained and equipment seized, Al Alam said. A security source said the outlet lacked a license.

US troops are training in the state of North Carolina to move into Syria, should President Obama give the green light, and secure the chemical weapons that Washington alleges Syria has.

“You’re seeing these phony things of the chemical weapons being used. Of course Assad, particularly when things are kind of changing and he’s kind of winning, the last thing in the world he would do is give the West some reason to invade because of the chemical weapons,” Dean noted.

“To me, it sounds like another disinformation, one with they’re trying to trigger some type of intervention from the West but we can’t see any invasion from the US going in there at all. The military, everybody is against it,” he added.

Recently, some US lawmakers in Congress have raised concerns over Obama’s pledge to arm militant groups in Syria and the new talk of a potential military action against the Middle Eastern nation.

SNC president says priority is to secure advanced weapons for fighters on the ground
…
Otherwise, we in the SNC will become like the Roman philosophers who were arguing about the meaning of life while the walls of Rome were under attack and the city falling.

The behaviour of most Hezballah Party supporters in Lebanon is typical of brain washed people. When they see their leader Nasrallah they see the light and their rational part in their brains (if they ever had it) stops working automatically.

This unrational behaviour and their education for martyrdom is the key to success … for their enemies.

A single pen/brush-stroke from Youssef Abdelki is worth far more than the entire career of certified fascist alkadi and worth all the words ever written or uttered by anyone conveying such raw sewage from such a dastardly pit of excrement and an intellectual midget like alkadi and all the worthless useless lives of the four who voted up ziad’s sewer conveyance.

Hardline Islamist rebels also appear to be leading the fight to seize Khan al-Assal. Western powers such as the United States are alarmed about the rising power of radical Islamist groups, particularly since Washington has pledged to offer military support to Assad’s opponents.

No military aid has been given yet due to political deadlock over the Islamist issue in the U.S. Congress.

“Perhaps the Islamists are trying to stay out of the spotlight. They’ve been regrouping and naming themselves with numbers, things like ‘the 9th Division’ and so on, but these are the same Islamist radical groups like the Islamic State of Iraq and Sham or the Islamic Front to Liberate Syria,” one opposition activist said, declining to be named.

“The Gulf states and the Turks thought they would own the Syrian problem in the early period of the uprising,” said Emile Hokayem, a Bahrain-based analyst at the International Institute for Strategic Studies who’s just written a book about the Syrian war. “Then they realized the limits of their power and begged for U.S. leadership, figuring the U.S. could harmonize the various approaches toward Syria and de-conflict them.” But the United States wants only to manage the Middle East crises “at the margins,” he said. Both men spoke in telephone interviews.

Saudi Arabia is trying to step in with arms and funds to make up for the lack of U.S. military and civilian aid. But the oil-rich kingdom isn’t able to deliver all the necessary arms at a time rebel forces have sustained major setbacks at the hands of forces loyal to Assad, aided by arms deliveries, training and financial aid from Russia, Iran and the Lebanese militia Hezbollah.

Tensions between Saudi Arabia and Turkey and the United Arab Emirates and Turkey “are huge,” Hokayem said.

Shaikh predicted that the competition “in the end of the day will come back to haunt them,” for an unstable Egypt “is not good for any of them.”

In principle, the United States backs the coalition, said Fayez Sara, a writer and journalist who’s now a member of the coalition’s political committee. However, he said, “until now, no money has been received from the U.S.”

When the U.S. offers advice, “it is inconsistent,” he said in an interview.

“In the morning, they say, ‘Unite.’ In the afternoon, it’s ‘Fight terror groups.’ In the evening, they say, ‘Work for a political settlement with the regime.’ ”

He said there was a contradiction in the U.S. message, which declared on one hand that “Assad must go” and on the other demands of Assad’s opponents that “You have to arrive at some sort of agreement with him.” Sara says that when he points this out to U.S. officials, he receives different responses. Some say, “You’re right,” and others “just walk away,” he said.

“We’re going to see an Assad surviving in a weakened fashion, more dependent on Iran and Hezbollah, with no strategic gain,” Hokayem said. There will be “a range of radical groups, whose identity we don’t know, which will be very difficult to contain.”

NAJAF, Iraq (Reuters) – The civil war in Syria is widening a rift between top Shi’ite Muslim clergy in Iraq and Iran who have taken opposing stands on whether or not to send followers into combat on President Bashar al-Assad’s side.
…

In Iran’s holy city of Qom, senior Shi’ite clerics, or Marjiiya, have issued fatwas (edicts) enjoining their followers to fight in Syria, where mainly Sunni rebels are fighting to overthrow Assad, whose Alawite sect derives from Shi’ite Islam. Shi’ite militant leaders fighting in Syria and those in charge of recruitment in Iraq say the number of volunteers has increased significantly since the fatwas were pronounced.
…
The Syrian war has polarized Sunnis and Shi’ites across the Middle East – but has also spotlighted divisions within each of Islam’s two main denominations, putting Qom and Najaf at odds and complicating intra-Shi’ite relations in Iraq.

In Najaf, Grand Ayatollah Ali al-Sistani, who commands unswerving loyalty from most Iraqi Shi’ites and many more worldwide, has refused to sanction fighting in a war he views as political rather than religious. Despite Sistani’s stance, some of Iraq’s most influential Shi’ite political parties and militia, who swear allegiance to Iranian Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, have answered his call to arms and sent their disciples into battle in Syria. “Those who went to fight in Syria are disobedient,” said a senior Shi’ite cleric who runs the office of one of the top four Marjiya in Najaf.

“SHI’ITE CRESCENT”

The split is rooted in a fundamental difference of opinion over the nature and scope of clerical authority. Najaf Marjiiya see the role of the cleric in public affairs as limited, whereas in Iran, the cleric is the Supreme Leader and holds ultimate spiritual and political authority in the “Velayet e-Faqih” system (“guardianship of the jurist”).
…
Khamenei and his faithful in Iraq and Iran regard Syria as a important link in a “Shi’ite Crescent” stretching from Tehran to Beirut through Baghdad and..

Answering a question posted on his website by one of his followers regarding the legitimacy of fighting in Syria, senior Iraq Shi’ite cleric Kadhim al-Haeari, who is based in Iran, described fighting in Syria as a “duty” to defend Islam.

Militants say that around 50 Iraqi Shi’ites fly to Damascus every week to fight, often alongside Assad’s troops, or to protect the Sayyida Zeinab shrine on the outskirts of the capital, an especially sacred place for Shi’ites. “I am following my Marjiiya. My spiritual leader has said fighting in Syria is a legitimate duty. I do not pay attention to what others say,” said Ali, a former Mehdi army militant who was packing his bag to travel from Iraq to Syria. “No one has the right to stop me. I am defending my religion, my Imam’s daughter Sayyida Zeinab’s shrine.”

A high-ranking Shi’ite cleric who runs the office of one of the four top Marjiiya in Najaf said the protection of Shi’ite shrines in Syria was used as a pretext by Iran to galvanize Shi’ites into action.

“SHI’ITE PROJECT”

In the 10 years since Saddam’s fall, Iran’s influence in Iraq has grown and it has sought to gain a foothold in Najaf in particular. Senior Iranian clerics have opened offices in Najaf, as well as non-governmental organizations, charities and cultural institutions, most of which are funded directly by Marjiiya in Iran, or the Iranian Embassy in Baghdad, local officials said. The Iranian flag flies over a two-storey building in an upscale neighborhood of Najaf, which houses the “Imam Khomeini Institution”, named after the Islamic Republic’s founder, Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini.

The Imam Khomeini Institution is one of many Iranian entities that have engaged in social activities in Iraq, focusing on young men, helping them get married, and paying regular stipends to widows, orphans and students of religion. Some institutions also support young clerics and fund free trips for university students to visit Shi’ite shrines in Iran, including a formal visit to Khamenei’s office in Tehran, Shi’ite politicians with knowledge of the activities say. “We have a big project in Iraq aimed at spreading the principles of Velayet e-Faqih and the young are our target,” a high-ranking Shi’ite leader who works under Khamenei’s auspices said on condition of anonymity. “We are not looking to establish an Islamic State in Iraq, but at least we want to create revolutionary entities that would be ready to fight to save the Shi’ite project”.

Tara,
I hope you had a nice vacation.
the subject of Iranian shia versus arab shia was discussed here on SC last year. Iran has regional ambitions and can not understand, or does not care, why arab shia need to get along with their Sunni brothers. National feelings among many shia are stronger than their requested loyalty to Wilayet Al-Faqeeh but Iran takes advantage of bad regimes that treat shia like second class citizens. Most of the hatred and bitter division among Muslims will disappear when they are free in their own countries politically and economically, most people if given the chance will prefer to live in peace with their neighbors and be loyal to the country they live in, Iran’s influence is directly linked to the conflict with Israel and the lack of freedom in the arab world.

The U.S. military intelligence agency warned the Obama administration early in the Syrian uprising that dictator Bashar al-Assad would be able to hold onto power for years even in the face of widespread opposition, the deputy head of the Defense Intelligence Agency said.

The DIA predicted Assad would remain in power until at least the start of 2013, a classified assessment more pessimistic than the early public statements by administration officials.

David Shedd, No. 2 in the Defense Intelligence Agency, said today that the Syrian civil war is now likely to continue for years, whatever Assad’s fate. The country faces the prospect of “unfathomable violence” and growing power there by Islamic radicals, including those allied with al-Qaeda, he said.

“My concern is that it can go on for a long time, as in many, many months to multiple years,” he said, speaking at the Aspen Security Forum in Aspen, Colorado. “And the civilian casualties, the enormous flow of refugees and the dislocation and so forth and the human suffering associated with it will only increase in time.’‘

There are 1,200 opposition factions in Syria, which highlights what has been the administration’s concern about being able to sort out secular moderates from radical Islamists for aid, Shedd said. The radicals, such as the al-Nusra Front, are the most effective opposition fighters, he said.

(Reuters) – Clashes between Islamist rebel forces and Kurdish militias spread to a second Syrian province on Saturday, activists said, as factional tensions rose in the north of the country.

The fighting is further evidence that the 2011 uprising against President Bashar al-Assad’s rule has splintered into turf wars that have little to do with ousting him and highlight the risk of regionalized conflicts that could have an impact on neighboring countries.

The new round of fighting broke out in Tel Abyad, a border town near Turkey in the rebel-held Raqqa province. The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said clashes began after Kurdish militias in the area discovered fighters from an al Qaeda-linked rebel group trying to rig one of their bases with explosives.

The Kurds retaliated by kidnapping several fighters, including the leader of the Islamic State of Iraq and Sham, one of the most powerful Qaeda-affiliated forces fighting in Syria.

Security sources have said Assad’s next move will be to push on to rebel-held territories near the border areas of northern and southern Syria, for which they are slowly trying to build up forces in the area.

Elsewhere in northern Syria, Assad’s forces launched a third day of heavy air strikes on the town of Saraqeb in Idlib province.

Some activists suggested the army may be trying to hammer areas near a critical road leading to Aleppo in order to distract the rebels and bring in supplies to its forces.

BEIRUT (AFP) – Syrian Kurdish fighters in the north fought fierce battles against jihadists and captured a commander of the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIS) late Saturday, a monitoring group said.

“Battles pitting fighters from the Kurdish Fighters brigade against ISIS and other groups are raging on in several areas of Tal Abyad in Raqa province, after (Kurdish) fighters captured ISIS’ emir in the town,” said the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights.

Observatory director Rami Abdel Rahman told AFP the emir’s nom-de-guerre is Abu Musab, though it was unclear whether he is Syrian or foreign.

The development comes just days after fighters loyal to the Committees for the Protection of the Kurdish People (YPG) expelled Al-Nusra Front and ISIS from the strategic Kurdish town of Ras al-Ain in Hasake province.

The clashes in Tal Abyad, which lies on the Syrian border with Turkey, broke out after jihadists ambushed a school that Kurdish fighters in the town were using as a base, said the Britain-based Observatory.

Earlier Saturday, Kurdish fighters in the majority Kurdish province of Hasake expelled jihadists from a checkpoint and seized their ammunition.

ASPEN, Colo. — A senior American intelligence official on Saturday warned that the Syrian conflict could last “many, many months to multiple years,” and described a situation that would most likely worsen regardless of whether the Syrian leader, President Bashar al-Assad, fell.

The comments by David R. Shedd, the deputy director of the Defense Intelligence Agency, were one of the strongest public warnings about how the civil war in Syria has deteriorated, and he seemed to imply that the response from the United States and its allies had so far been lacking.

Mr. Shedd suggested that in addition to strengthening the more secular groups of the fractious Syrian opposition — which the Obama administration has promised to arm with weapons and ammunition — the West would have to directly confront more radical Islamist elements. But he did not say how that could be accomplished.

“The Syrian Electronic Army has reportedly hacked the popular video chat app Tango. Since announcing the hack on Twitter yesterday, the group has posted a series of photos supporting their claims, and state they’ve acquired 1.5 terabytes of data.

The group claims that the stolen data contains phone numbers, contact info, and emails from millions of Tango’s users. With 120 million active users as of last month, it’s still unclear exactly how much of Tango’s user base this will impact and how severely. It is also not clear if the compromised data is encrypted or not.”

There have also been moves made from the Western community, including the US and the EU, implying that they would like to increase military aid to the opposition in a plan to influence the progress of the civil war. The US has given several signals that it would provide military aid to the opposition. Meanwhile, the message coming from Russia is that it would provide game-changer S-300 air-defense missile systems to the Syrian regime — a message that has attracted great attention. This is in direct conflict with the heavyweight’s long-term priority of finding a political solution in Syria.

“Such a mixed message was Russia’s way of implying that, in order to ensure an ongoing military advantage of Assad, it would not stay silent on any military support to the armed opposition,” Hasan Selim Ozertem, an analyst on Eurasia and energy security at the International Strategic Research Organization (USAK), said in comments to Today’s Zaman.

Armed groups in Syria continue at each other’s throats in battles for territory, manifesting the wide and incoherent rifts between these groups. Battles that led to many deaths and injuries begin to show that fighting isn’t directed at the Syrian Army anymore.

Violent clashes took place between two armed groups in Idlib Province’s Ariha city when some gunmen were determined to turn themselves in to the Syrian Arab Army’s checkpoints in the city’s outskirts.

DAMASCUS, July 20 – A Syrian Kurdish leader on Saturday denied a plan to form an independent Kurdish government within Syria.

Salih Muslim, a high-ranking official of the country’s opposition party Democratic Union Party (PYD), said that the circulating rumor saying the Syrian Kurds are seeking independence from Syria is completely false.

According to Muslim, the Kurds, a dominating ethnic group in Northeastern Syria, are planning on launching a series of relief programs to help the people. He stressed that there is no intention among the Kurds to form their own government, nor to secede from Syria.

Earlier on Saturday, Qatar-based al-Jazeera quoted Muslim as saying that the Kurds are considering forming their own government in Northern Syria, and that a self-governing body in the “Western Kurdistan” is urgently needed as the Syrian conflict is showing no sign of abating. And the body would be temporary and would resolve after the Syrian conflict ends.

Ziad,
This war spared the rich and powerful on both sides, most of those who died were poor Syrians who I am afraid lost their lives to defend people or countries that do not care about them, even when the dollar went up to 300 lira a lot of connected people piled millions when most Syrians could not afford to buy meat and vegetables.
Without a real revolution that institutes an acceptable level of social and economic justice we will not see the rise of the Syrian nation .
Assad regime figures allied themselves with business and merchant class to get richer and stay in power, those who said NO lost their lives, left the country or went to prison, I have no respect for people to defend this regime ( I am not attacking any particular person here) or worked to replace the regime thugs with a new class of thugs using religion or any other vehicle to give their rhetoric a moral cover.
Uzair,
Many seculars still honor and practice Islam but they do not want religion to be mixed with politics, I personally know many Syrians who became more religious after the war, I happen to be one of them, there is nothing wrong in trying to find comfort and refuge in religion or God, however, people who advocate violence and embrace hatred are not religious and they do not worship the same God who we believe is merciful and forgiving.

I don’t pray taraweeh any more, but I still remember the feeling of inner peace when I used to. I still see it in the eyes of my grand parents when they pray.
To me what matters for humans is to be good. Some people need religion to be good. I respect people who are good because of their religion.

While there are bad atheists, most atheists are good without the need of religion. Becoming atheist widens your scope of being ethical. You start rationalizing about being virtuous. You transcend your religious community, race, and nation. You begin to care not only about all humans, but also about animals and the environment.

Actually Islam requests from you to care about all human being, animals and the environment, but Islam has been in crisis for a very long time, and Muslims are busy partitioning humanity into Sunni/Shia, believers/cuffars, dar al Islam/dar al harb. Being good has become to mean being good within your own community, and the other has become the enemy that must be fought through Jihad.

In my view, the worst of all human beings are those who are convinced that they are pleasing their God by committing the most horrible of atrocities. I read about those every day and ache, but I agonize most about the good religious people who remain silent about them.

Abbas al-Nouri gives a good interview to LA Times, here is some of what he said:
BEIRUT — Abbas al Nouri pauses as a particularly loud car roars past the cafe on the main thoroughfare. The overly solicitous waitress lingers, a hint of recognition in her eyes.
At the table, the conversation inevitably focuses on Al Nouri’s native Syria.
“The father who cannot listen to his children is a failure, and this is something that destroys the family,” Al Nouri says, the metaphor describing the war pitting armed rebels against the government of President Bashar Assad.
“This revolution happened so that people could express themselves,” he continues, choosing words carefully between drags on his cigarette. “This regime, which is military in nature, did not have the culture to digest the idea that some people have an opinion.”

Has Ali Farzat made anymore direct anti-Bashar cartoons since he is in exile?

Such low taste gloating is expected!… such lower sinking further to this level of callous repulsive distasteful comments?.

However, the answer to your distasteful question is YES . Ali Ferzat has been doing a lot despite of your thugs breaking his hand, because as you have just demonstrated they are barbarians, low class, who hate art and fear artists. He also detests the owner of the site that uses his name to make himself appealing to people while he is in fact nothing more than a cheap bootlicker like most of regime propagandists on this blog.

Ali Ferzat is alive and kicking and his work is even more damning to bootlickers and to d-p athad.

So now that you have shown yourself belonging to a class of people who detest real art, and favor the low class screeches of Ali- deek and the cheaply painted portraits of the d-p and its dead family, along with the fat nus-lira, much like kind of paintings one may find in athma’s bedroom next to her spike studded shoes.

Granted Ali is still working under pain, and his pen-strokes are a little lighter nowadays as his hands have not yet regained their dexterity after the criminal incident you sound so proud of, but he still is able to greet d-p athad and its hyenas, exactly as his friends have imagined. It is after all the greeting low class, low taste, and criminal repulsive minds; Ali so fund of exposing, deserve. Congrats, you may just have earned a greeting from Ali Ferzat. Not many get that honor.

Do you nominated the Taliban in order to control the north of Syria?
Do you nominated al-Qaeda to govern the north and east of Syria?
Players with fire!
you will catch defeat
And this sweeping evil will be moved to your territory !

Abdeldeki is a political cartoonist who has been openly opposed to the government since he came back to Syria in 2009 and has been actively supporting the rebellion.

He can be an artist but in a country facing a civil war, he also an agitator.

There a very famous Lebanese singer who joined the Salafists in Lebanon and is now condemned to death.

Being an artist does not give immunity in times of war.

Abdelki is one of Syria’s most renowned artists and not only a “political cartoonist”. Your ignorance of Syria and Syrian real art continues to expose the nus-lira, aoun, and other non-syrian interferes in the affairs of Syria, and it also speaks loudly of the fascist motivation and character of those thugs standing behind your statements and of the deranged mental state of those cheering you around this.

What you barfed is fascism shown in one of its ugliest faces. I don’t think you sank further, for you have always been at the bottom of the unethical, immoral pit of fascism.

Of course, people of this mind-set shriek so loud when a thug is murdered by its own spouse, when they think they can blame it on those seeking to get rid of fascists and fascism.

I will leave honest, freedom seeking readers with this snippet of a critics’ view of some of Abedlki’s work. It is not for the fascists who support the regime and its terrorist appendages in lebanon and sources of murder and thuggery in iran and russia, for they will understand non of it, especially the last few words on how tyranny assassinated the beauty of our lives.

Prime minister says Britain will not be supplying arms to Syrian rebels despite pressing for lifting of EU arms embargo

David Cameron has admitted the Syrian president, Bashar al-Assad, has strengthened his position in recent months as he warned that the country faced a “depressing trajectory”.

In an interview on the Andrew Marr Show on BBC1, the UK prime minister also gave his clearest indication to date that Britain will not be supplying arms to the Syrian rebels despite pressing for the lifting of the EU arms embargo.

Cameron insisted he was still committed to helping the Syrian opposition but admitted its numbers included “a lot of bad guys”. He also acknowledged that Assad had strengthened his position.

The prime minister said: “I think he may be stronger than he was a few months ago, but I’d still describe the situation as a stalemate. And yes, you do have problems with part of the opposition that is extreme, that we should have nothing to do with.”

Abdelki is today considered one of the most famous Arab sculptors, as well as one of the most prominent graphic artists. Many of his studies regarding Arab caricatures have also been published and acclaimed
…
Since his early childhood, Abdelki’s life has been overshadowed by a series of misfortunes that have been aggravated by his political leanings.

Youssef Abdelki: By virtue of affiliation to the Syrian Communist Party, my father was arrested 12 times in the 40s and 50s.

Such a distressing upbringing left Abdelki with only one alternative in a wretched life devoid of choices.

Youssef Abdelki: I engaged myself in politics to swim with the tide.
…

zouzou
Abdelki’s own words are beyond the grasp of fascists. So don’t try any more, your brain could burst.

Al-Nusra characters are not funny. They hate fun. After-all, fun is the enemy of righteousness in their eyes. They are pretty much like fascists and terrorist nus-lira followers in their despising culture, finesse, art, and anything that can lift the human conditions . I am sure you can easily relate to that. But like fascists and demented heirs, they make a good subject for brilliant cartoonists like Ferzat.

FM of Egypt said he will re evaluate egypt policy toward Syria
Egypt in chaos,there is no stability yet and it is not expected to stabilize for the next six months, a new constitution will be redrawn it may not be approved by Egyptians,
So I am not worried about Egypt new policy toward Syria, the new FM needs to mature.

Cameron said Assad made some gains recently , but he said also that there is stalemate in Syria, Zoo did not mention that.

The sessionists Kurds are not peaceful anymore, they are violent,most likely they will pull back ,they are opportunistic people.

Iraq is flaring,and there seem to be some division among Shiaa leadership, between Arab Shia and Barbarian Shiaa

The Kurds are in a historic process of nation-building. Any analysis should recognize this fact, though it is not clear how this process will end up. The current political and administrative map is no longer capable of keeping the Kurds (in Turkey, Iraq, Syria and Iran) satisfied. Therefore, one inevitable fact in the Middle East is that the Kurds will increase their political autonomy.
…
The Turkish-Syrian border is becoming a mess where various groups like al-Nusra and al-Qaeda are present. Ankara cannot secure this border alone, for simple reasons: It is an 800-kilometer border, the basic security of which requires millions of dollars and considerable manpower. The current regional dynamics make securing that impossible. Therefore, the only alternative is to make an effective alliance with other actors beyond the border. In other words, Ankara is to pick up friends among the fighting groups in Syria for its own security.

You will not see real coverage of any anti-nusra and anti داعش events on SC. It does not fit the editorial “west pee in your pants” policy of the owner and side-kicks.

Investigations like the ones you are asking for are happening everywhere, and actions, civil as well as military, against the foreign thugs are taking place every where. Not by the regime of course, for it also does not fit its plans. You just have to tune to the right channel.

Syrian will cleans the country from foreign jihadists, be it nus-lira and iranian fanatics thugs jeehadies , or afghani, chechen, egyptians or tunisians. It will be done by real Syrians.

As for electronic media, you will always have non-syrian troll here and there protecting aoun, nus-lira, athad, or for that matter any demented fascist, be it a person or an organization.

You are absolutely right, while they are not fun, they make an absolutely as cartoonish as it can get.

170. SimoHurtta said: Omen and others supporting his/hers Syria (Iran, Egypt etc) “view” are all time accusing those who do the support so much the rebel movement on personal levels and speculating with their motives and backgrounds.

Did the Syrian Pound really get 300 per USD? Do you know how to know the daily exchange rate? Is now 200 ?

TO BRAIN WASHED ASSAD BELIEVERS

From the first days of the peacefull revolution we informed here and in many other places that weapons were massively transfered and sold from Lebanon to Syria towns by HA dealers. The plan was to let the peacefull movement become a violent one. Of course syrian citizens did not become violent by their own. They demonstrated and got bulleted while the whole world did nothing to help. Then they bought weapons from lebanese HA dealers and then Assad converted this conflit into a civil war were Assad Army had superiority.

Assad decided from day 1 that this conflict would be decided by force since he is unable to diallogue with anyone. This is why he armed whole Syria.

The leader of a restive province in Russia’s Caucasus Mountains says local Islamic militants are fighting alongside rebels in Syria and could further destabilize their home region when they return.

Ramazan Abdulatipov, the acting president of the province of Dagestan, said in remarks posted on his website Sunday that the “export of extremists” should be prevented by making it hard for militants to leave Russia.

“These people go there and they will come back tomorrow with the backing of international extremist and terrorist organizations,” Abdulatipov said during a meeting with local officials Friday.

Andrei Konin, the head of the regional branch of Russia’s Federal Security Service, the main KGB successor agency, told the meeting that about 200 residents of Dagestan are currently in Syria, and some of them are fighting alongside rebels.

Believe me your regime is criminal and assassin. You cannot do anything to deny it or avoid it. It is now worldly known. They are total criminals bombing full Damascus quarters full of innocent people and destroying full cities all around Syria. They are criminals against humanity and for me their followers are dirty criminals or brain washed clons at best.

“S” H
It’s precisely because you consider anything on the bigger picture as a distraction that you have failed “your” revolution (comfortably sitting on your chair).

The demonstrations in Syria were launched at the worst time: when the different secular and islamist currents who made the Tunisian and Egyptian revolutions to happen had not yet been able to find a common platform for a way forward, and that the Gulf took this opportunity to turn the cameras to Libya and Syria as a real distraction enabling them to launch on the ground a real counter revolution with the help of some MB currents (not all).
Remember the Syrian MBs press conference in Turkey, broadcasted live by aldjazzara?

I still wait for the enthousiasts here to explain me their “vision” of how the MB fans and the Atassi FB fans are supposed to govern together and get the country rid of international djihadist phalanges.

Just imagine after 10 years when Assad is still in power. Syria has become a chiite country and creates the Union of Wilayat al Fakih with Lebanon, Iran and Irak.

How will humanity look back in shame to what no one did in Syria to help the syrian populations and their fair demands during the syrian spring 2011…

We have thousands of videos and pictures as well as testimonies certifying all massacres commited by the state apparatus and shabbihas. How will the world look at itself when Assad is still in power fuxxxxing its own citizens ?

Web site Sham FM published the text of the decree issued by the so-called “Sharia court” Islamist terrorist groups in Aleppo 11.07.2013.
Here is the literal translation: “Any citizen whose guilt of being a vile Alawite sect is proved, be subject to a sentence of Sharia (will be killed by cutting the throat), and its funds and property to be confiscated in favor of the members of jihad.

Women sentenced become slaves and can be used jihadists as this – halal.
God is with us!

MINA
Go lecture someone else on failing revolutions and on bigger pictures. Ever noticed that the bigger picture you keep preaching about is identical to the bigger picture preached by zawahiri and every single nut-case fanatic be it islamist, communist, nationalist or simple worn out bankrupt leftist. It is always “West-Gulf-Israel” global conspiracy and each one of you keeps shouting that the other is part of that conspiracy. In reality, both of you are the worst plague ever to hit the region and rob it of a chance to join civilization. You both thrive on an induced state of irrational enertia, and are no different except for the name of thuggery you support.

You can’t and will never accept your own part of the failure. As pan-arab nationalists, you screwed up the Palestinians a million times, as leftists, you brought the region the type of republican dictatorships that only used secularism as toilet tissue and still insist on using that wonderful tapestry after you have soiled it to wipe out everyone else’s nose. Your policies and distance from your societies are a major part of the fundamentalist backlash that will reverberate for decades to come. And as intellectuals, you failed miserably in bringing the light of modernity to your countries and were mere midgets intellectually when compared to the real pioneers elsewhere. The results of your handy work are all out there to see. Tunisia, a place you were so proud of its secular system turned out a breading ground for the worst of the followers of takfiri groups, so was Algeria and it continues to be, Egypt, kept moving from one failure to another, and now you got your hands on a new assad in the making, hope you enjoy the ride. Syria, you kept boasting of its unique fabric, and it turned out to be a fabric torn by the moth that never existed before you showed up on the scene and which you brought for the ride in the dictators’ torture tool box, which you have tolerated for decades. Worst, you hooted for a regime of the worst type, just because its leaders barfed the word Palestine, and supported a terrorist organization that differed in no way from those you keep having nightmares about.

So you, MINA are the last one to talk about failure, and what do you care if the Syrian revolution failed, you have been a counter-revolution ideologue from Day one.

And now, the entire region pays for your pretentious fraudulent rationalism. Every-time one of you starts blabbering about conspiracy, i realize, you were history’s conspiracy against lazy people. Well people are no longer lazy and they are trying to get rid of you and your arrogance. It is costly, but it will happen.

“Without a doubt, the events taking place in the north of Syria are a great risk for Turkey,” Bahçeli said. “The skeleton of a second autonomous region has been formed after Iraq’s north, its door has been opened. God forbid, but if it goes on like this, Turkey will take the third place,” he added. Bahçeli was remarkably hard on Foreign Minister Ahmet Davutoğlu regarding his remarks on Syria. “How will the Foreign Minister, who has said nothing that will concern Turkey could take place in Syria, explain the current situation?” Bahçeli asked. “For how long will someone who lacks foresight, horizon and is so shallow be allowed at the head of Turkish Foreign Affairs?” he continued, while deeming Davutoğlu’s remarks on the issue “obscure.” “Foreign Policy in Turkey has collapsed,” he said.

In an article published by Naasser Sharaara in “Al-Akhbaar”, the name of the “Syrian opposition’s” new leader plays a major role in explaining the new Saudi campaign to destroy Syria and its people. Sharaara found out that his real name, as set out in Syria’s criminal registry is “Ahmad Al-‘Awniaan Al-Madlool Al-‘Aassi”. He was under arrest in Saudi Arabia in 2008 but, also, wanted on a criminal warrant in Syria for drug trafficking. Pursuant to an extradition agreement enforced by both the Saudi and Syrian security services, “Al-Jarbaa” was returned to Syria. He was put on trial and found guilty.

Another fact about Al-Jarbaa was recorded by the Qatari security service. When Hamad (Fatso) overthrew his father and took over the reins of power in Qatar, the then-foreign minister took refuge in Syria and demanded the re-installment of the former monarch, Khalifa. Hamad-Fatso contacted Al-Jarbaa and demanded that he kill the exiled foreign minister. According to Sharaara, Al-Jarbaa received a large sum of money after he promised to kill the foreign minister. But, apparently, instead of carrying out the task, he snitched on the conspirators by telling the ousted monarch’s supporters about the plan. He received another financial reward for doing exactly that. When the Syrian security services found out about this, an investigation was launched and Al-Jarbaa was arrested and charged with “larceny by trick or fraud”. He was sentenced to 5 months in prison for swindling everybody.

But it only gets better. Criminal records in Syria also showed that Al-Jarbaa was not some ordinary Cagliostro. In 2004, Al-Jarbaa cajoled the Libyan ambassador in Damascus by representing his “shaykh-hood” over the large Shammar Tribe which originates in Saudi Arabia but has branches in Syria, Iraq and Jordan. He finagled his way into Libya with a delegation of his fellow-tribesmen to pledge allegiance to Mu’ammar Al-Qaddafi who had just announced himself: “King of Kings and Lord of All Africa”. But also, in 2004, Al-Jarbaa tried to inveigle Rafic Hariri into accepting him on the basis of his tribal connections. But, at that exact time, the Syrian security services were pursuing him on charges of “running houses of prostitution in Damascus and Al-Hasaka”.

CONGRATULATIONS TO THE NATIONAL COALITION OF SYRIAN WHATEVER (NACOSROF) ON ITS ELECTION OF THIS REPUTABLE APE!! WE THANK YOU FOR YOUR GOOD TASTE. WE, ESPECIALLY, THANK THE SAUDI SIMIAN DYNASTY FOR ITS JUDICIOUS EXERCISE OF POLITICAL JUDGMENT!!

Sandro Loewe you can keep saying the demonstrations were peaceful but they weren’t. You don’t go from demonstrating for a better life to cannibalism in two years. There is something wrong with this picture.

“S” H
Who is the pan-Arab here? who is stupid enough to believe that Qatar and the Saudis could ever deliver anything in the intrest of the Syrians?
Remember the betrayal of the Southern Iraqi Shias by George Bush Senior after inciting them to rebel?

The Iran-backed Islamist movement Hamas which runs the Gaza Strip rejected a return to talks, saying Abbas had no legitimate right to negotiate on behalf of the Palestinian people.
Iran rules out a two-state solution and has its own vision of how to resolve the six-decade-old conflict between Israel and the Palestinians.

“The end of occupation … self-determination for the Palestinians, the return of all refugees to their ancestral land, and the creation of an integrated Palestine with Al-Quds (Jerusalem) as its capital,” Araqchi reiterated.

MINA
On of the reasons you have become irrelevant is because you don’t think people can do things on their own. It is always someone’s incitement.

The Syrians blew your “elitist” theories to dust. They did that from day one, and they are doing it every day.

And it is so funny that after protesting my comment, you simply post yet another post about the west ignoring some earth shattering event like the visit by a monarch of half known country to a proto-dictator of a well known, yet confused country.

I try to get the news about the dollar and lira from Syria news, my brother in low works in exchange also

Zoo predicted that the dollar will come down to 90 lira
Zoo was the first to tarnish the image of Mr Jarba,now Mr.r–veneer is taking this job

Mr. Jarba was in Cairo ,he met FM in Egypt ,who in the press conference said Egypt support the revolution in Syria and will help Syrians in Egypt, this to me means they will not open the embassy in Damascus

You know you lie. If you do not know you are out of reality or you get paid for doing this job of misinformation. Be true to yourself and stop this game. You are playing with human lives. It is so sad. ….only if you could share views with those people fleeing their homes…. with all children who lost their parents.

“314. SANDRO LOEWE said:
306. revenire
You know you lie. If you do not know you are out of reality or you get paid for doing this job of misinformation. Be true to yourself and stop this game. You are playing with human lives. It is so sad. ….only if you could share views with those people fleeing their homes…. with all children who lost their parents.
For me people who ignore human suffering is simply garbage.”

I am human garbage?

What about all the Syrians who support the government who have been slaughtered by the cannibals?

I am not playing a game, nor getting paid and am true to myself.

There is no revolution. You’ve been tricked.

Try talking without calling anyone who does not support your FSA criminals names.

Millions of Syrians love Assad. I feel in my heart you know that is true.

Assad should go to Palestine with Iran Army and the brainwashed of Hezb Zbele and conquer Jerusalem instead of destroying syrian cities and exterminating syrian populations. But do not get cheated Assad is there alive an kicking because he has a mission and Israel and Iran know about this mission very well. And secondly if Assad cannot even free Aleppo how will he do to hit even a single israeli jet?

I am not the first who have reported the dark and suspicious past of Jarba , the newspaper Al Akhbar was before me.
I have not predicted the dollar will get to 90, I said there is a rumor that’s what the government is trying to achieve.

Syrian President Bashar al-Assad’s forces ambushed rebels in a strategic suburb near the capital Damascus on Sunday, killing at least 49 people, a pro-opposition monitoring group said.

The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said the opposition fighters had been killed near Adra, a town that rebels have been fighting to recapture from Assad’s forces. It lies on a route that the rebels had been using to smuggle weapons into Damascus until the army captured it a few months ago.

After Jarba pompously claimed a few days ago that his top priority was to get advanced weapons for the rebels, Egypt told him that Egypt’s top priority for Syria is a political solution to stop the bloodshed and not a military solution.
Egypt made no explicit condemnation of the Syrian government.
Overall Jarba got nothing, not even the removal of the visa now necessary for Syrian opposition members to get in Egypt.
It does not sound like a good start for the new president of the Coalition.

Egypt supports the political solution to the Syrian crisis, said Egypt’s newly installed Foreign Minister Nabil Fahmy after a meeting with new head of the Syrian National Coalition opposition group Ahmed al-Jarba in Cairo on Sunday.

“We are working on finding a political solution to the crisis in Syria and ending the bloodshed,” said Fahmy, adding that he hopes to attain the solution through the second Geneva Conference or any other possible way.

“Egypt supports the Syrian revolution and the aspirations of its people and condemns with no hesitation any blood shedding,” Fahmy said after a meeting with Al-Jarba while they discussed recent developments in Syria and Egypt.
…
Fahmy said that it is too early for the new government in Egypt to suggest any new initiatives regarding the Syrian crisis, “but we are deeply thinking about the situations and we will offer what serves the interests of the Syrian people.”

On Saturday Fahmy told reporters that Egypt has no intention for Jihad in Syria. He added that the decision by the ousted President Mohamed Morsi to sever ties with Syria will be reviewed.

Al-Jarba said that Egypt was never a supporter for the military solution in Syria and there should be a political solution in Syria.

Al-Jarba said that he was assured by the Egyptian FM that the new visa rules for Syrians imposed recently are only temporary measures that will end soon.

Sunnis persecuting Sunnis in Egypt! I don’t see Iran and Hezbulah here! Do you?

Syrians in Egypt feel the chill of Mursi’s ouster

But the turmoil across Egypt showed no signs of easing, with the country’s vulnerable population of tens of thousands of Syrian refugees, previously welcomed by the government of deposed president Mohamed Mursi now the latest group to face open hostility from triumphant anti-Muslim Brotherhood forces.

Accused of supporting the Brotherhood and participating en-masse in pro-Mursi demonstrations – allegations the community denies – the racially-charged rhetoric directed against Syrians and Palestinians from some TV stations has translated directly into hostility on the streets, the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees warned.

A presenter on one privately-run television station broadcast that Syrians had just 48 hours before they would be driven from their homes. It was not true, but the climate of fear was palpable, prompting the Arab Organisation for Human Rights to accuse elements of the Egyptian media of conducting a “hostile campaign” against Palestinian and Syrian refugees.

“They were saying Syrians are taking your jobs, they distributed flyers around 6th of October City where lots of Syrians live.

“Taxi drivers are always asking us if we are Syrian, they are judging us by our looks – I have a little black beard so people are thinking maybe I am Ikwan, but I am not, we are not that conservative.”

“For me and most of the Syrians here now, we are used to an uncomfortable way of living, we are used to feeling that there is always a danger around us, always on our nerves.”

Violence by rebels started much earlier than many of you are willing to admit. A turning point in Banyas for example was the ambush of a military convoy carrying soldiers and officers going home to see their families (there was no incidents in Banyas until that unprovoked attack):

The first casualty in the army was in Daraa on March,22,2011
(Khaldoun M. Uthman)
3 days later, gunmen opened fire inside the officers club in Homs (again,Homs was quiet until that day)
few weeks later (April,17,2011) rebels assassinated a retired general (Abdo Hkider attilawi) with two of his sons and his nephew.
Here is an admission (taken from an opposition site)that Al-Masjed Al-Umari was used as a weapons storage center by a Saudi who was supporting rebels:
This is when Bashar dropped the ball and proved that he is arrogant and not fit to lead:

4 months after the “revolution”, demonstrators in Jablah (where sunni and alawites live together for centuries)and other areas express their opinion about alawites, Shia and Hizbullah:

This reminder is not intended to discount the fact that there were unarmed Syrians who protested against the regime, but if you want to tell the story of the Syrian war, the whole truth should be told. Those who were too quick to carry arms and use violence only helped the regime and hurt the citizens they were supposed to protect.

25 civilians were killed in Ariha-Idleb when a mortar or a missile exploded in a busy market. rebels and regime sources exchanged blame for the massacre.
Ariha is not totally controlled by either side and it is still a battle field.

Egypt has taken center stage along with the Syrians. The United States is caught in a bind as it is not sure who to support or where to give its foreign policy money. President Obama is touting democracy but this message takes on a hollow tone as the Egyptian military installed a new leader and began rounding up its ousted president and his supporters. Additionally, Egypt has its own private version of a time bomb with joblessness among people under 30 years of age at 74%! Overall unemployment is listed at 13.2% but like the United States, it measures only those people currently seeking work and has written off the hundreds of thousands of people that have given up seeking employment. So whether it is President Mubarek, President Morsi, or the Muslim Brotherhood, more than 1 million people have swelled the ranks of Egyptian unemployment since 2010. Eight out of 10 jobless Egyptians are under 30. Egypt faces years of unrest until this problem can be addressed.

Unless there is some resolution to the Palestinian situation soon, sheer demographics will make Gaza and the West Bank explode. The high birth rate among Palestinians is the core issue facing Israel. There are 11.6 million Palestinians, 4.4 million live within the East Bank, Gaza Strip and East Jerusalem and 1.4 million live within Israel itself. In a few decades, Arabs will outnumber Jews within the land of Israel. Israel cannot keep the Palestinians bottled up in a geographical prison for long. Something will have to be decided or there will be a civil war within Israel on a gigantic scale.

DAMASCUS, July 22 (Bernama) — Up to 25 Syrian civilians were killed and over 85 others injured Sunday when Syrian armed opposition fired in the northwestern province of Idlib.

The victims, including women and children, were killed when the group fired a homemade missile at one of Syrian army’s military points in Areha town, Xinhua news agency quoted pro-government Sham FM radio as saying.

However, the missile missed its target and hit a fairground in the town instead.

A local witness said the massacre was committed by the Free Syrian Army.

Oppositional activists said government troops had shelled the town, killing 19 people and injuring many others.

I found it stupid to say the revolution started violent because of one or three incidents, the fact is that 99.9 % of the demonstrations early in this revolution were very peaceful, while the regime responded to such peaceful demonstrations by violence in over 90% of the time.
The fact is that this regime is brutal ,murderous animalistic regime
And those who defend this regime are co murderous.

Another massacre in Banyas by the regime today.

It is difficult to believe the violence in Syria will take 10 years as some american generals and british general have been saying.

The battle to dominate Aleppo will be long and bloody, I was hoping that fighting parties will accept this fact and work for a cease fire but it looks like this war is likely to continue for a long time, people who want a cease fire may be in the majority but they do not have a voice. It is simply unacceptable to powerful backers of rebels and the regime to allow one side to win decisively. Rebels would have won by now if they had the support of most Syrians but they simply do not. Assad’s fire power is not enough to explain how he and his regime survives this long. Assad’s enemies did not provide Syrians with a good alternative, the sooner rebels realize this the faster this war can end. I see no chance for this regime to be able to rule Syria but I also do not see a real scenario where rebels can impose their will over areas they failed to control after 2 years of continuous fighting, this makes it more likely that Syria will either become another Afghanistan or get partitioned, at least for the near future, Assad does not have enough men to win back the north and the east, and the Kurds are now ready to start the inevitable process of separation, the only winner of this tragic outcome is Israel. What is sad is that many of us have been saying this for 2 years.

I am still waiting for someone to explain on this site and prefer Mr. Landis, all the comments made by the Obama administration and others that Assad days are numbered.
it has not looked that way for months and probably Assad will still rule Syria into 2014.
Does this signal secrets that the west doesn’t want Assad to be removed but do the dirty work to help Israel in the region.

LONDON — NATO has determined that President Bashar Assad ended any short- or mid-term threat from the Sunni revolt in Syria.

Officials said NATO, in consultation with Western intelligence agencies, assessed that the Sunni rebel campaign against Assad failed over the last three months.

The officials said Assad’s military, backed by Iran and Russia, would capture major rebel strongholds with the exception of northern Syria by the end of 2013.

“Currently, the tide seems to have shifted in his [Assad] favor,” Gen. Martin Dempsey, the chairman of the U.S. Joint Chiefs of Staff, said on July 18.

Officials said the assessment led to a decision by several leading NATO countries to halt lethal weapons shipments to the Sunni rebels. They cited Britain, France and the United States.

“The rebel campaign has deteriorated dramatically since April and now it’s not clear who is fighting Assad or who is just getting a paycheck,” an official said.

The NATO assessment asserted that most of the Syrians involved in the revolt — including those in the Free Syrian Army — were no longer fighting the Assad regime. Instead, the bulk of combat has been assumed by foreign fighters, most of them affiliated with Al Qaida.“

They [Syrian rebels] are frustrated and angry at the world for not stepping in and helping,” U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry said during a tour of a Syrian refugee camp in Jordan. “I explained to them I don’t think it’s as cut and dry and as simple as some of them look at it.”

In mid-July, both Britain and France signaled their opposition to any weapons shipments to the Syrian rebels. Officials said the two countries, which until June were the most supportive of arming the opposition, determined that any major weapons shipments could end up with Al Qaida militias.

“There are certain conditions that need to be met before eventually sending weapons,” French Foreign Minister Laurent Fabius said.

“For now France has not modified its position. We have the ability to do it, but we haven’t delivered any lethal weapons.”

It indicates that the ‘revolution’ simply failed because of many factors, the most important one is that the Syrian army remained loyal to the government.
As the Syrian army represents a cross section of the population, therefore we can say that a large majority of the Syrians have abandoned the revolution especially when they saw the alternatives proposed by the opposition: A Moslem Brotherhood or Islamist dictatorship under the direct control of the USA and the Oil sheikhs.

Ghufran said
“Rebels would have won by now if they had the support of most Syrians but they simply do not. Assad’s fire power is not enough to explain how he and his regime survives this long”
This is false statement
For the rebels to win they have to have enough weapons,and anti tanks and anti aircrafts, the west has been withholding weapons from the rebels giving just enough to cause stalemate, the west withhold weapons if rebels win, and supply them again if Assad wins some battle, the west is like the devil, they prefer that this war take long,so Syria ends up very very weak.
Assad weapons are huge and constant supply keeps getting in from Russia and Persia, and when the regime was about to collapse HA and Iraq militia sent troops, the west like the idea that HA is involved, in few months it will get weakened,by losing thousands of its members

Assad is mainly left with Damascus and a corridor running through Homs to his Alawite heartland and army bases on the coast and to Hezbollah’s strongholds in Lebanon.

Andrew Terrill, research professor of national security affairs at the U.S. Army War college, said the rebels will “hang on” because Assad has lost too much of the country.

“Winning battles is very different than winning wars because people who are under assault are going to recoup at some point. The rebels remain armed and remain able to strike at him,” Terrill told Reuters.

“Assad may be able to win in the sense that he may stay in power and he is not overthrown directly, but I cannot imagine him pacifying the country because I just think there are too many rebels and too much resistance,” he said.

Terrill said new weapons expected from Saudi Arabia are bound to redress the balance of power as well as promised U.S. arms.

Another 75 of NATOs finest trained killers bit the dust in Damascus alone

Activists: 75 Syria rebels dead in Damascus battles

BEIRUT (AP) — Syrian activists say government troops have killed at least 75 rebels over 24 hours in battles for control of the capital, Damascus.

The death toll reported by the Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights on Monday included 49 rebels killed in an ambush in Damascus’ northeastern suburb of Adra early Sunday. The group says an elite unit loyal to President Bashar Assad ambushed the rebels as they were trying to push into the city.

The Observatory reported that another 17 rebels died in fighting Sunday in central Damascus, while another nine were killed in its suburbs.

Hezballah has been a terrorist organization for the last 30 years kidnapping, torturing and killing people but the EU did not notice, was not sure about it. Was it a semantic question to be resolved?

Finally today the EU has realized that Assad is a mafia supported by terrorist international groups of wide range that includes mafias and drug smuggling in Colombia and Brazil as well as diamant traffic in Africa. Crimes commited by this mafia are not easy to track but we can imagine how many thousands of people died to their leaders personal beneffit.

They decided to negotiate for the sake of negotiating. Haven’t we seen this movie before lol

Press-imism abounds over renewed talks

Israeli media not expecting much by way of results from prospect of restarted negotiations with the Palestinians

US Secretary of State John Kerry announced Friday evening that Israel and the Palestinian Authority “reached an agreement that establishes a basis for resuming negotiations,” but Maariv leads off with a skeptical clause saying “it was only the opening shot in a long and tedious race, full of twists and impediments, of which it’s doubtful the sides will reach the finish line.”

According to the paper, Kerry warned PA President Mahmoud Abbas that should he refuse to come to the table, “aid to the PA will be harmed.”

The first matter the two sides will discuss is the order of business, it cites an American source as saying. According to Haaretz, the Palestinians want negotiations to lead off with sorting out borders and security arrangements, while the Israelis prefer the core issues — water, Jerusalem, Palestinian refugees and the right of return.

Makor Rishon’s top story is that, contrary to that report of a West Bank settlement building freeze ahead of renewed talks, “there will be no building freeze, not even a slowdown,” according to “sources involved in the negotiations.” It also reports that Israel will only release of 80 Palestinian prisoners — “serious murderers,” it calls them — “once the talks take place and are serious,” according to sources.

unfortunately the HA is not totally banned. The EU has banned the military arm of the HA. Many critics have raised their concern that one can not separate the military arm from the political arm, the HA itself stressed always that all decisions, including suicide bomber missions are decided by the leadership.

I hope my government will follow the dutch example by banning the HA in total. But nevertheless HA will have major problems now to do their crowdfunding in Mosques and “cultural centers” throughout Europe. I am sure they will through their criminal expertise gained will laundry their money through other states.

Syrian activists said rebels have seized a strategic village on the edge of the northern city of Aleppo. The capture of Khan al-Assal is a rare bright spot for Syria’s rebels, who have been battered in recent months by government forces on several fronts in the nation’s civil war.

The Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights says opposition fighters took full control of Khan al-Assal on the western outskirts of Aleppo on Monday.

The village has been the site of frequent clashes between the army and rebels for months

Juergen
How can you seperate the military part from the political part? the military part is controled by the political leadership, Hassan Nasrallah is the comander of both
HA without the military part is a useless organization, the seperation is a justification to work with HA in the lebanese goverment
Nevertheless it is a setback to HA

Military progress by the Assad regime, the likelihood of US and/or European aid to the rebels, as well as Russia’s attitude, all complicate the possibility for negotiations on the situation in Syria. However, neither side can win outright, and so, a compromise is necessary, if further years of conflict with further heavy casualties are to be avoided. The Iranian election result may be the only positive element in a deteriorating regional security environment. This may well have opened up an opportunity to address one level of the proxy war in Syria, that of Saudi-Iranian rivalry.

It is unlikely that the Assad regime can regain control of the whole country in the coming months, but it continues to have sufficient confidence to make it unwilling to accept even a temporary ceasefire, let alone substantive negotiations. This position is made possible by continuing aid from Iran and Russia, with the Maliki government in Baghdad also an ally through its willingness to facilitate Iranian access to Syria.

The difference in the regime’s position compared with late last year is striking – only a few months ago, Iran was helping to fund, arm and train militias that would ensure Iran’s continued influence in a post-Assad Syria, thus assuming that the regime would not long survive.

The changes in fortunes of the regime depend partly on external support, but there are other relevant factors:

The regime’s morale is being boosted by Putin’s recent statement that Russia would prevent the establishment of a no-fly zone.
The establishment of a National Defence Force by the regime, comprising local militias engaged in local protection, is beginning to prove effective, especially in releasing regular SAA units for direct action against rebel forces.
The SAA has become more effective in conducting combined operations utilising helicopter gunships and strike aircraft in support of army units.
The SAA is some way from exhausting the range of equipment available, with little use made so far of the Fatah-110 solid-fuelled surface-to-surface missile.
The rebels appear to have made a serious error in seeking to maintain control of al-Qusayr by using substantial forces engaged in regular rather than guerrilla operations. Their determination to prove they could control territory using only light arms against the SAA proved disastrous, with as many as 400 rebels killed.
The increased effectiveness of the more Islamist-inspired elements among the rebels is serving to enhance support for Assad from confessional groups fearing an Islamist ascendency in a post-Assad Syria.

When these factors are integrated into a single assessment, it seems that the regime is secure and likely to remain so, even if some rebel groups are further supplied with weapons and munitions. The effect of such supply is likely to increase casualties rather than alter the outcome of the war.

Jul 22, 2013
Tartous, (SANA)- In the framework of targeting moderate religious figures, terrorists on Monday assassinated sheikh Osama Tawfiq al-A’sar, Imam of the mosque of al-Qreir village in the countryside of Banias in Tartous.

An official source told SANA reporter that terrorists opened fire at sheikh al-A’sar in the farms of al-Qreir village using machineguns.

The source stressed that sheikh al-A’sar was martyred along with another man accompanying him.

There have been many assassinations of religious figures committed by terrorists. Chairman of the Levant Scholars Union, Dr. Mohammad Said Ramadan al-Bouti and preacher of Anas Bin Malek Mosque in Damascus, Dr. Ahmad Sadeq, were among the victims.

Mosques and churches have also been targeted by the armed terrorist groups.

I saw the gory pictures of the massacre in Areeha. The opposition blame the SAA fired mortar shell. Of course all those MSM chimed in. This is the pattern now and unfortunately no longer an effective propaganda.

The extensive carnage and damage cannot be attributed to a single mortar shell.

The regime got it right this time again: It was a rocket, one of those big homemade ones by the rebel. Of course they did not intent to kill those civilians this time. The rocket was intended to target a nearby SAA checkpoint.

Those locals know well who is the perpetrator. The opposition can win a little hearts and minds if they come out and denounce those rebels and brigades. Unfortunately, the sinister and coward people there and here don’t have any decency or guts.

Exactly. Crying “massacre” no longer works. It is war and people are going to die. They will keep dying until there is a battlefield winner. The West will sacrifice 500,000 Syrians to get rid of Assad. Syrian lives mean nothing to the rulers of US, UK or Saudi Arabia. The longer this goes on the better for Israel. The Zionists would love to see Syria bleed for fifty years.

It seems the regime and it’s allies are running out of steam. The short sequence of alleged ‘victories’ have apparently dried up. No surprise there as experts have suggested that the regime, due to it’s limited resources, can only press on for so long, before it has to rest, recuperate and regroup for another major push.

Just wait and see, before long the regime camp will begin the internal finger pointing and public blame game. They’re feeling the heat for sure.

May Allah cause discord and distrust amongst the ranks of the tyrannical alliance.

majedkhaldoun, how’s that no fly zone coming? You know, the one you posted every day about two and a half yers ago! You hang in there now. It’s like you told us way back then, any day now. Ramadan mbarak habibi.

Forces loyal to Syrian President Bashar Assad are escalating their offensive to push rebel fighters out of the divided strategic city of Homs in the central region, indicating that their much-touted drive against the northern city of Aleppo was a feint.
…
The strategic objective seems to be to drive a wedge between rebel forces in the north and south and consolidate the center of the country and the western border with Lebanon that connects Damascus to the coastal stronghold of Assad’s minority Alawite sect.
..
That would be a body blow for Assad’s badly fragmented opponents, who are even fighting among themselves these days, and it would likely force the United States and Europe to decide whether to start funneling arms to the rebels groups or call it a day.
…
The fighting in Homs, Syria’s third-largest city 90 miles north of Damascus, is reported to be fierce. The Syrian army is reported to have made some advances in the battered city, the cradle of the uprising to topple Assad in March 2011, but rebel resistance is said to be intense.

However, the rebels are reported to be running low on ammunition, and resorting to suicide attacks on the advancing regime forces, which might suggest that another Assad victory is within reach amid a fierce artillery and air bombardment of rebel positions.

Some rebels have reportedly sneaked out of the city because they have no weapons to carry on the fight.

After Assad’s troops took Qusair, the word was that the regime’s next target was Aleppo in the north, where rebels hold much of the city. In June, regime officials even announced the start of “Operation Northern Storm” aimed at overrunning the city.

But no major offensive took place there. “The Aleppo operation may have been a feint all along,” drawing rebel forces away from Homs, Badran cautioned.

“A major operation in northern Syria was never the logical move after Qusair. The real, strategically coherent next step always was in Homs and Damascus and their countryside along the border with Lebanon.”

The Turks aren’t alone in fearing that Syria may be heading toward a break-up that would see the formation of at least three new mini-states.

Three mini-states

One such mini-state would be an enclave for Syrian President Bashar al-Assad’s government in the west and northwest that would be populated by members of the Alawi sect, an offshoot of Shia Islam, Shiites and Christians. Another would be a Sunni-majority state in the center and south of the country and the third would be a separate entity in the northeast for Syria’s two million Kurds.
…
The province of Homs would be crucial for establishing a viable Assad rump mini-state because it would link predominantly Alawite areas on the Syrian coast with Shiite-dominated areas in Lebanon’s Bekaa Valley.

Bassel Saloukh of Lebanese-American University argues there are already signs of ethnic redistribution in Syria, with more Shiites concentrating in Shiite areas, and Sunnis being displaced or moving from areas near the border with Lebanon.

“Look at the sectarian map of Baghdad before 2006 and after 2006,” Saloukh said. “Look at Lebanon. Look at the map of Beirut and its suburbs before the Lebanese civil war and after. This has happened in Iraq and this, alas, is happening in Syria.”
..
Tensions between Kurds and jihadists have increased in recent weeks as al-Qaida affiliated rebel groups have tried to exert more power over enclaves they control in northern Syria.

Some analysts believe the fighting between Kurds and jihadists could spread. They say Kurdish militants are eager to snatch some of the oilfields currently controlled by the jihadists.

..
The Assad regime is no friend to freedom or the United States. But this does not mean the enemy of our enemy is our friend. There are currently 17 different rebel groups in Syria, including the largest group, al-Nusra.

Al-Nusra fighters are radical anti-American jihadists that are affiliated with al-Qaeda. Politicians in Washington, who are eager to send these weapons, promise they will not fall into the hands of our enemies.

Do you believe that? Does anyone believe that? We have trouble telling friend from foe in Afghanistan. Syria is a thousand-fold more chaotic. Even our Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, Gen. Martin Dempsey, warns that it is becoming increasingly difficult to tell friend from foe in Syria.

Would Eisenhower, who believed small wars could lead to big wars, buy into such nonsense?

Even if you believe we should arm Islamic fighters in Syria, shouldn’t, at the very least, Congress vote on the matter? The Constitution is very clear. Congress is to declare war, not the President.

Nevertheless, President Obama is moving ahead with plans to get involved in the Syrian civil war, without the authorization of Congress.

How can we ask our brave men and women to fight against al-Qaeda in some countries and with al Qaeda in other countries?

It makes no sense.

A great irony is that these weapons may well be used against the two million Christians currently in Syria, who are generally protected by the Assad regime.

I, for one, will fight with every ounce of my energy to prevent American arms from being used against Christians!
…

UN Official urges Syria’s neighbors (hosting refugees) not to allow children refugees to be recruited as fighters
22/07/2013

UNITED NATIONS, July 22 (KUNA) — A UN Official on Monday urged Syria’s neighbours to be vigilant and not to allow the children in refugee camps, such as the Za’atari camp in Jordan, to be recruited as combatants and be sent home to fight.
Leila Zerrougui, the Special Representative of the Secretary General for Children and Armed Conflict, told a press conference following a recent trip to Syria and the neighbouring countries that in some camps outside Syria, the recruitment of children as combatants is “ongoing to send them back home to fight,” giving as an example the Za’atari camp in Jordan.
She urged the “neighbouring countries hosting civilians not to allow the recruitment of children to go back to Syrian as combatants.
“We heard very clearly from boys that were injured that they were involved in different functions from many armed groups that are operating inside Syria, ” she said.

Very interesting Ziad. I believe the effects of US war on Irak will be very long and painful in terms of genetical disorders and long term pollution.

As it will be the effect of Assad and his powerfull weapons from Iran and Russia. Assads not only transformed Syrian Desert into a nuclear garbage hole but now infect the whole country and their water reserves with uranium.

There are still many brainwashed syrians that still suffer the effects of a decaying corrupt dictatorship educational system. They can easily develop a critical spirit. Only religion can help them do it. This is the great gift of Assad the laic, the half prophet half God of the alawites.

We are not brave men here. Most brave men died defending their lands and their children and families from the criminal Assad Army. Still some of them remain but if the rebels fail to topple Assad the new population of Syria will receive a genetical influx of cowardness and sadism since most brave and honest men will be gone. The sons and daughters of these brave men will one day topple Assad the GOD DOG and his persian mercenaries.

Train, Advise, and Assist the Opposition
…The option requires safe areas outside Syria as well as support from our regional partners. Over time, the impact would be the improvement in opposition capabilities. Risks include extremists gaining access to additional capabilities, retaliatory crossborder attacks, and insider attacks or inadvertent association with war crimes due to vetting difficulties.”

Conduct Limited Stand-off Strikes
“This option uses lethal force to strike targets that enable the regime to conduct military operations, proliferate advanced weapons, and defend itself. Potential targets include high-value regime air defense, air, ground, missile, and naval forces as well as the supporting military facilities and command nodes. Stand-off air and missile systems could be used to strike hundreds of targets at a tempo of our choosing. Force requirements would include hundreds of aircraft, ships, submarines, and other enablers.

Depending on duration, the costs would be in the billions. Over time, the impact would be the significant degradation of regime capabilities and an increase in regime desertions. There is a risk that the regime could withstand limited strikes by dispersing its assets. Retaliatory attacks are also possible, and there is a probability for collateral damage impacting civilians and foreigners inside the country.”

Establish a No-Fly Zone.
“This option uses lethal force to prevent the regime from using its military aircraft to bomb and resupply. It would extend air superiority over Syria by neutralizing the regime’s advanced, defense integrated air defense system. It would also shoot down adversary aircraft and strike airfields, aircraft on the ground, and supporting infrastructure. We would require hundreds of ground and sea-based aircraft, intelligence and electronic warfare support, and enablers for refueling and communications.

Estimated costs are $500 million initially, averaging as much as a billion dollars per month over the course of a year. Impacts would likely include the near total elimination of the regime’s ability to bomb opposition strongholds and sustain its forces by air. Risks include the loss of U.S. aircraft, which would require us to insert personnel recovery forces. It may also fail to reduce the violence or shift the momentum because the regime relies overwhelmingly on surface fires—mortars, artillery, and missiles.”Establish Buffer Zones.
“This option uses lethal and nonlethal force to protect specific geographic areas, most likely across the borders with Turkey or Jordan. The opposition could use these zones to organize and train. They could also serve as safe areas for the distribution of humanitarian assistance. Lethal force would be required to defend the zones against air, missile, and ground attacks. This would necessitate the establishment of a limited no-fly zone, with its associated resource requirements. Thousands of U.S. ground forces would be needed, even if positioned outside Syria, to support those physically defending the zones. A limited no-fly zone coupled with U.S. ground forces would push the costs over one billion dollars per month. Over time, the impact would be an improvement in opposition capabilities. Human suffering could also be reduced, and some pressure could be lifted off Jordan and Turkey. Risks are similar to the no-fly zone with the added problem of regime surface fires into the zones, killing more refugees due to their concentration. The zones could also become operational bases for extremists.”

Control Chemical Weapons. “This option uses lethal force to prevent the use or proliferation of chemical weapons. We do this by destroying portions of Syria’s massive stockpile, interdicting its movement and delivery, or by seizing and securing program components. At a minimum, this option would call for a no-fly zone as well as air and missile strikes involving hundreds of aircraft, ships, submarines, and other enablers. Thousands of special operations forces and other ground forces would be needed to assault and secure critical sites. Costs could also average well over one billion dollars per month. The impact would be the control of some, but not all chemical weapons. It would also help prevent their further proliferation into the hands of extremist groups. Our inability to fully control Syria’s storage and delivery systems could allow extremists to gain better access. Risks are similar to the no-fly zone with the added risk of U.S. boots on the ground.”
….
Dempsey stressed it’s better for the options not to considered “in isolation” but as “an overall whole-of-government strategy for achieving our policy objectives in coordination with our allies and partners.”

“All of these options would likely further the narrow military objective of helping the opposition and placing more pressure on the regime. We have learned from the past 10 years; however, that it is not enough to simply alter the balance of military power without careful consideration of what is necessary in order to preserve a functioning state,” Dempsey added in the response to Levin and McCain. “We must anticipate and be prepared for the unintended consequences of our action. Should the regime’s institutions collapse in the absence of a viable opposition, we could inadvertently empower extremists or unleash the very chemical weapons we seek to control.”

Erdogan refuses to see Syria split in mini-states because a Kurdish Syrian autonomy will give a fatal blow to his current plans of pacifying and keeping the Kurds in Turkey through some constitutional changes. He is even ready to use military violence on the Syrian Kurds to prevent this from happening if negotiation fail.

Yet it is becoming clear to everybody that if Bashar al Assad al Assad goes or establishes an Alawite-Christian enclave in West Syria, the emergence of a Syrian Kurdistan at the border of Turkey will be inevitable.
Therefore Erdogan as well as the West are trapped. If they are not able to build a Syrian opposition politically and militarily capable of preventing the country from splitting, they seem to have no other choice than to allow Bashar Al Assad to stay in power.

http://www.hurriyetdailynews.com/turkeys-kurdish-phobia-resurfaces.aspx?pageID=449&nID=51195&NewsCatID=416
…
With such high stakes, the preservation of Syria’s territorial integrity is once again of prime importance for Ankara but will require a radical change to the AKP’s overall game plan. The new plan will also have to involve some form of dialogue with the PYD, as an extension of the ongoing dialogue with the PKK. As matters stand, the PYD is already trying to reach out to Ankara with assurances that it has no ill intentions toward Turkey.

The new game plan will also have to override the AKP’s obsession with the al-Assad regime, especially now that it is apparent that no one – including Britain, France, and the United States – is prepared to help arm the Syrian opposition in a meaningful way.

But given Erdoğan’s hard-line stance, which has proved to be to the detriment of Turkey’s interests, on issues from Gaza to Syria, and now to relations with Egypt, it remains an open question whether the AKP is ready, or even capable at this point in time of revealing a new game plan based on the prevailing realities of the region. It seems things may have to get worse before the AKP realizes it has been flogging a dead horse.

Zoo
Israel attacked syrian military few months ago destroyed liuaa 203, Similar attack to destroy the other two liuaaa’s and an attack on the fourth division west of Damascus,in Sahra area, would paralyse Assad military power in the area around Damascus.
If you remember after Israel attack, the rebels advanced in Ghouta area,Jobar Barzeh and south of Damascus, it was only till Assad troops were supported by HA, iraqi militia and persian weapons till lately the regime advanced a little.The cost of such attack would be small, the idea is to force Assad to accept transitional goverment

….
Senator John McCain, an Arizona Republican, said at the hearing that he would block Dempsey’s nomination for a second term heading the Joint Chiefs unless the general revealed his advice to Obama. McCain has led calls in Congress to arm the rebels and establish a no-fly zone to protect the opposition from Assad’s air power.
“We wouldn’t be starting a war,” McCain said. “We would be trying to stop a massacre that’s going on.”
Senator Carl Levin, the Michigan Democrat who’s chairman of the committee, asked Dempsey to write the letter outlining options in an effort to resolve the committee’s conflict with the general.
‘Unintended Consequences’
“It is not enough to simply alter the balance of military power without careful consideration of what is necessary in order to preserve a functioning state,” Dempsey said in the letter, dated July 19. “We must anticipate and be prepared for the unintended consequences of our action.”
Dempsey said training and advising the Syrian opposition would cost $500 million a year, while the cost of conducting stand-off strikes against Assad’s military “would be in the billions.”
Dempsey’s comments reflect the views of commanders, who have been critical of proposals to intervene in Syria.

….
A no-fly zone also would be “very expensive,” Mattis said July 20 at a security conference in Aspen, Colorado. “It will have tankers. It will have fighter planes up constantly. It will drain the Treasury. It will take our hard-pressed military into one more fray. It’s going to require helicopters and special forces to recover the pilots who get shot down.”
“Can we do it? Absolutely,” he said. “And the killing will go on on the ground because they are not using aircraft to do most of the killing.”

Something is amiss. Follow the logic (Warning, not for fascist d-p lickers)

1. Military leaders in the west are concerned about the so-called advanced air defense system owned by d-p athad sneeker army.

2. Israel has 100% strike success rates in syrian air-space and 0% losses so far in all of its raids against d-p athad military installations.

Possible Explanations:

A. Regime has squat and all the talk about advanced air-defense system is simply distraction, and the regime is thus nothing but treasonous mafia who stole the billions slated for defense through dealing and wheeling with their Russian mafia buddies

B. Regime does have strong advanced systems that it is too afraid to use against Israel and it is then treasonous cowards, especially if measured by the “rethithanth” camp brohaha and the crap about their national “honor”.

Either way the end result is that d-p athad should be tried for treason, and thrown to its miserable fate so well deserved. So should all who support it.

A growing backlash against Egypt’s political Islamists looked set to intensify over the coming weeks as the nation’s revolutionary forces outlined demands to ban religious parties and outlaw political campaigning from mosques (source: CNN)

The only reason the EU put the military arm of HA on the terrorist list is because they don’t know what to do about Syria. The whole world knows that HA has nothing to do with the attack in Bulgaria. It is an empty meaningless move by losers.

I do not support targetting civilians regardless of who is the aggressor and who is the victim but I definitely think that hypocrisy takes a life on its own when it comes to western politicians. If you want to denounce terrorism you need to start with Israel which was founded by terrorists wanted by the Interpol and is still practicing terrorism as a state policy since 1948. When it comes to terrorism in the middle east the only party that can compete with Israel is nusra. Alqaida and the rest of the Takfiri groups some of you support openly or covertly. This decision by the EU is further evidence that European governments are irrelevant , they do what uncle Sam and father Shlomo ask them to do. Justice should be blind, in this case justice has one eye that can only look at chosen targets.

While Daly was quite right in censuring Obama for his criminal policies, including aiding terrorists in Syria, it is worthwhile noting that Obama is merely a willing instrument; the faces and factors behind his handlers and the policies merit greater scrutiny and exposure.

Backing and arming the so-called Syrian opposition distracts from the threat posed by Israel and its expansionist agenda by internalizing the enemy in order to weak the State. As former Israeli Intelligence Chief, Amos Yaldin told the audience at the Israel Policy Forum in February 2013: “And this military [Syrian], which is a huge threat to Israel , is now also weakening and, in a way, disintegrating. We still have risk from Syria– a risk of being an AlQaeda country, a Somalia-type country — but from military point of view, each one of these are less dangerous than the Syrian regular army.”

Perpetuating adversaries to kill each other is a time-tested tactic – one which was used during the bloody eight year Iran-Iraq war; a war which according to Leon Wieseltier was a “distraction” when Israeli boots were on the ground in Southern Lebanon. In that war, the United States was providing arms and intelligence to both sides. When asked what the logic was in aiding both sides in the bloody war, a former official replied: “You had to have been there’’. But why Syria ?

Why the EU move against Hizbullah is pointless by Thanassis Cambanis- The Atlantic:

First, it eliminates communication with Hezbollah, putting even further out of reach meaningful diplomacy on the Syrian conflict and on Lebanon. It also necessitates foolish gymnastics for states that continue their relationship with the Lebanese government as if Hezbollah weren’t the primary power within that government. Effectively, it amounts to a blanket ban on dealings with Hezbollah, since the Party of God does not make any distinction between its military, political and social work; the organization is seamlessly unified, its fighters as distinct from the supreme leadership as America’s Pentagon is from the White House.

Second, it ties the EU’s hands in acting as a regional broker. How can the EU leverage its power across the Levant’s many conflicts if it won’t talk to one major player, and in fact has taken the step of branding it a terrorist group while leaving alone other factions who engage in similar violence?
In a reality where Hezbollah is a key central player, it makes little to no sense to erect a cone of silence around them (already some governments, like Britain, don’t talk to Hezbollah officials, following the U.S. lead). Any significant political accord in Lebanon must include Hezbollah, just as any political resolution of the Syrian conflict will have to include Iran and Hezbollah, along with the other states that sponsor the rebels and the government. Any other approach is simply a denial of reality and doomed to fail.

Third, the designation will hardly dent Hezbollah. Already Hezbollah operatives linked to violence or terror plots in the West are subject to prosecution in Western courts. Already, Hezbollah’s operations in the West are underground. If agents of Hezbollah are raising money for the group by trafficking narcotics in South America, or are training sleeper cells in Germany, how will the designation stop them? These already are secret, illicit operations; law enforcement and intelligence work might thwart them, but not blacklists.

House Intelligence Committee signs off, with reservations, on administration’s call to arm Syrian opposition
Published July 22, 2013

The House Intelligence Committee signed off Monday on the Obama administration’s call to arm the Syrian opposition, while continuing to voice serious reservations about a policy they’d held up for weeks.

The leader of the jihadist Syrian rebel group Jabhat Al-Nusra (Al-Nusra Front) has declared that his group is in favor of establishing an Islamic caliphate in civil war torn Syria.

In an audio recorded that has been disseminated over the past several days, Abu Mohammad al-Julani stresses that he strongly opposes parliamentary elections or any political settlement in the country which would be achieved through international intervention.

“Being Muslims, we do not believe in political parties or parliamentary elections, but rather in an Islamic regime based on the Shura (advisory council) and which implements justice … Our heading towards the establishment of Islamic law (Sharia) is jihad in Allah’s way,” Julani says in the recording.

Al-Nusra Front several months ago pledged allegiance to Al-Qaeda chief Ayman al-Zawahiri and has blacklisted by the United States and the United Nations as a terrorist again.

In the recording, Julani is unfazed by his organization being blacklisted and, in fact, says he is proud to be blacklisted by the U.S.

Julani attacked the Hizbullah terror group which is assisting Syrian President Bashar Al-Assad in fighting the Syrian rebels, saying, “We thank Allah for the stupidity of the leader of this organization (Nasrallah) who revealed the organization’s disguised hatred against Sunni Muslims.”

Al-Qaeda is poised to declare an Islamic state in northern Syria with an announcement timed to coincide with the end of Ramadan

West Throws Syrians To The Wolves

Syria is now a magnet for various shades of extremist militias from Jabhat Al-Nusra that has sworn allegiance to Al-Qaeda chief Ayman Al-Zawahiri, to fighters from Al-Qaeda in Iraq that battle alongside the Free Syrian Army. In Assad’s camp are Hezbollah’s military wing, the Iranian Revolutionary Guard and militant Iraqi Shiite groups. The regime has rightly been condemned for committing war crimes and for using chemical weapons, but the inescapable truth is that atrocities — torture, mass executions, beheadings, car bombs, forced conscription of child soldiers — are also being committed by Assad’s opponents who’ve also been indicted for chemical weapons use. The sight of an FSA rebel cannibalizing the corpse of a government soldier, captured on video, was a blow to the Syrian National Council’s (SNC) moral platform.

If anyone thought the situation couldn’t get any more confused, they were wrong. In recent times, outright enmity between The Free Syrian Army and Al-Qaeda rebels has developed. The FSA is said to have armed “Al-Qaeda in Iraq” fighters which turned those same guns on an FSA commander, Kamal Hamami, for suggesting that Al-Qaeda wasn’t welcome within opposition forces. The FSA announced a declaration of war against Al-Qaeda and its co-ideologues Jabhat Al-Nusra. Likewise, Kurdish gunmen from northeastern Syria have been battling to expel Al-Qaeda from the province of Hassakeh and have faced off against Jabhat Al-Nusra jihadists close to the border with Turkey. According to one of Asharq Al-Awsat’s sources, Al-Qaeda is poised to declare an Islamic state in northern Syria with an announcement timed to coincide with the end of Ramadan.

The US, Britain and Europe don’t have clean hands either. They were quick to throw support behind the SNC and its Free Syrian Army, gleeful at the prospect of the toppling of Assad perceived as a fly in the ointment of their regional hegemony as well as a threat to their ally Israel. With the West applauding their efforts and promising success, the SNC believed its goals were guaranteed. After all, what regime could endure against the US and its allies who didn’t hesitate to “free” Iraq, Afghanistan and Libya from dictatorship? By comparison, ousting the Assad regime would be a genuine cakewalk – or so its antagonists must have hoped in those heady early days of the SNC’s formation. Most of the world, including the majority of UN Security Council member countries and the Arab League that gave Syria’s seat to the opposition — strongly backed them.

Unfortunately, the optimists in Washington and London failed to foresee that Moscow, whose geopolitical influence and economic interests were undercut by the 2003 Iraq war, would stand firm against Western military intervention. In an attempt to bypass Russia’s red line, Israel has launched several attacks on Syrian military facilities to goad Assad into retaliating which would have paved the way for an Israeli onslaught under the banner of self-defense, allowing the US and NATO to rush to Israel’s aid. But, until now, Assad has been too savvy to take the bait.

An S-300 missile fired from Damascus will blow away an aircraft over central Tel Aviv in about 107 seconds, giving the Israelis virtually no reaction time. Source: Ministry of Defence of the Russian Federation

The legacy of the venerable SA-2 and SA-6 missiles continues through their modern successors, including the S-300, S-400 and the astounding S-500. Because it can directly as well as indirectly influence the outcome of a war, the new generation Russian SAM is considered a strategic weapon. This is remarkable for a non-nuclear missile.

Indeed, it is a measure of the S-300’s fear factor that both Israel and the United States are strongly against its sales to Syria and Iran.

Weaponised in the 1970s to replace the first generation SAMs, the S-300 is an easy to use, fire-and-forget road mobile system designed to repulse massive air strikes. With a range of 5-150 km, the system can track up to 12 targets and engage six of them separately. In terms of accuracy, the Russians claim a single shot kill probability of 80-93 percent against aircraft.

No existing aircraft can outrun the missile which travels at 7200 km/h and has a maximum altitude of 98,000 ft. Also, the latest versions of the S-300 can hit aircraft and missiles flying as low as 20 ft – from above.

The best news this week is Europe decision that HA is a terrorist organization, this include Hasan Nasrallah as chief terrorist,just like Bin Laden , ,may be we will see Khamenei on the list of terrorists,

US, Israel, Russia and Iran are the motherfxxx leaders of the weapons world mafia today. There is nothing to do, they control political action all around and will crush any people like the syria people that cross their paths.

Activists say a group linked to al-Qaeda has warned civilians not to use a road linking central Syria with the northern province of Aleppo,declaring it a military zone.

The Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights and the Aleppo Media Centre said on Tuesday that Jabhat al-Nusra, or the al-Nusra Front, had threatened to target any vehicle using the road starting from Wednesday. A copy of the warning was posted online.

Activists have reported heavy fighting near the road, which links the central province of Hama with the embattled city of Aleppo.

The regime uses the route to ferry supplies to its forces in the north because the rebels already have severed the main north-south highway that connects Damascus with Aleppo. – AP

Justice should be blind, in this case justice has one eye that can only look at chosen targets.

Ghufran,

Per your Post 425, what kind of justice do you think is appropriate for a leader and his family who have prevented the 22 million people they “lead” basic human rights, flattened coutless villages and neighborhoods, caused 1.7 million to flee all at a cost of over 100,000 premature deaths?

Thousands of people were killed in the uprising before a ceasefire was agreed in February 2010.
…

“The Muslim Brotherhood and the Salafists want to take control of all mosques,” including those in Saada, “where they have their own places of worship as well as the biggest centre for terrorism in Dammaj,” he told AFP.

Zaidi rebels in late 2011 laid siege to Dar al-Hadith, an Islamic institution that trains Sunni preachers and believes in the strictest and most draconian interpretations of Islam, in Dammaj near Saada.
…

A Salafist delegate to the national dialogue, Mohammed Shibiba, accused the Zaidis of being tools in the hands of Iran and likened them to Lebanon’s Shiite militant movement Hezbollah.

“Hezbollah is present in Yemen under the name of Ansarullah. They are backed by Iran which is trying to dominate Yemen,” he said, charging that the Zaidis “receive military training” in the mountains.

But their frustration was compounded by the rise to power for the first time in Yemen’s history of a Sunni president, according to a participant in an ongoing national dialogue.

UN envoy to Syria still working on peace conference plan
July 23, 2013 6:49 pm

WASHINGTON, D.C.: United Nations (UN) peace envoy to Syria Lakhdar Brahimi said on Monday (Tuesday in Manila) he was pressing on with plans for a conference aimed at ending the fighting, though no firm date is in sight.

“It is extremely difficult to bring people who have been killing one another for two years just by a magic wand to a conference like this. It will take time, but I hope it will happen,” Brahimi told a handful of reporters on the sidelines of an event in Washington.

“There are still issues that have not been solved. We are hopeful. That’s all we can say.”

Are the Kurds helping the Syrian government by cleaning the North of Syria from Islamists while boosting the PKK and making Erdogan’s Turkey increasingly on the edge?

BEIRUT (AFP) – Syrian Kurds made rapid advances in the north of the country Tuesday, expelling jihadists from several villages, as a gulf of mistrust between Arabs and Kurds grew, a watchdog and activists said.

Tuesday’s fighting hit several villages including Yabseh, Kandal and Jalbeh, which lie in the northern province of Raqa on Syria’s border with Turkey and are home to a mixture of ethnic and religious communities, said the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights.

It also reported that the Kurds expelled the jihadists from Kur Hassu, Atwan, Sarej and Khirbet Alu villages in the same area, which lies near the majority Kurdish town of Cobany.

In Hasake to the east, Kurdish-jihadist fighting went into the seventh consecutive day in the Jal Agha area and other villages in the majority Kurdish province, the Observatory added.

The latest battles come a week after fighters loyal to the Committees for the Protection of the Kurdish People (YPG) expelled the jihadist Al-Nusra Front and the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIS) from the strategic Kurdish town of Ras al-Ain in Hasake province.

Ever since, fighting has spread from Hasakeh in northeastern Syria to several hotspots in Raqa province in the north.

All property records for Homs were destroyed in a fire earlier this month at the office of the city’s land registry and residents fear they can no longer enforce a claim to their land and homes.

“What else could be going on?” asked one resident who refused to be identified. “This is the most secure area of the city and it is the only building that has been burned. A conspiracy is underway.”

Former staff at the office say the records existed only on paper and had not yet been digitalised. Eyewitnesses in the Bab al-Hood district where the building is located, and several employees, reported seeing flames on the higher floors of the building on 5 July, where the files were archived, while regime forces were positioned on lower floors.
..
In Homs city, Sunni districts of Ashere, al-Khoder, Karm al-Zaitoun and Bab al-Sebaa have largely been emptied and replaced by Alawite families, numerous local leaders claim.
…
A mediator – a well-known diplomatic figure – is understood to have been asked by Assad to approach the former Israeli foreign minister, Avigdor Lieberman, late last year with a request that Israel not stand in the way of attempts to form an Alawite state, which could have meant moving some displaced communities into the Golan Heights area.

A source aware of the talks said that Lieberman had not rebuffed the approach but had first sought information on the whereabouts of a missing Israeli airman shot down over Lebanon, Ron Arad, as well as three Israeli soldiers captured in the Lebanese village of Sultan Yacoub in 1982, and the remains of Eli Cohen, an Israeli spy intelligence officer who was caught and executed in Damascus.
..more

More fights and more death planned starting in August while the Geneva conference has been ironically postponed to September

Syrian Rebels Hope for US Arms in August – Reports
20:13 23/07/2013

WASHINGTON, July 23 (RIA Novosti) – Rebel forces seeking to overthrow Syrian President Bashar Assad hope to receive arms from the United States as early as next month after two key US congressional committees approved the weapons shipments, according to media reports.

“We think August is the date,” The New York Times cited a Syrian opposition leader as saying in an email Monday night.

The intelligence committees in both the US Senate and House of Representatives last week signed off on the White House’s plan to allocate US Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) resources to provide weapons, training, and logistics and intelligence support to the Syrian rebels, though US officials only confirmed this week that the committees had approved the program.

The exact timeline of the deliveries was not immediately clear Tuesday, but the Washington Post reported that they are set to begin in the next several weeks.

It has taken two years and 100,000 lives to realise there is no military route to solving the Syrian crisis

Western states may have matured in their dealings with the situation in Syria, realising that it is more complex than once imagined, but this realisation has come two years into the civil war that has killed 100,000 people and left large parts of the country in rubble. Western policy on the Syrian situation was unfortunately dominated by rhetoric and “red lines”, but little action. It must be asked how much of that rhetoric was aimed at Syria’s backers, namely Iran, Russia and China, whom the US sees as adversaries or rivals, than at solving the plight of the Syrian people and relieve them of the tyrant that rules them.

Perhaps the realisation should serve as a wake-up call that will lead western states to direct their diplomatic efforts at finding a non-military political solution to the crisis by working with the Russians to bring both sides of the Syrian conflict to the negotiating table. If the realisation that the West cannot impose a military solution had come earlier, not only could Syria have been saved from a significant amount of death and destruction, but the opposition may have entered negotiations from a position of relative strength. For the international community to have taken this long to realise that a diplomatic solution is the only viable option meant that Al Assad had enough time to sweep the country and dictate terms to a significantly weakened opposition. The opposition, therefore, cannot be blamed for wanting to take no part in such talks, which, in the mean time, will mean even more violence and bloodshed.

Syria’s new opposition chief Ahmad Jarba arrived in Paris on Tuesday for a two-day visit aimed at convincing France to boost its support for rebels battling Bashar al-Assad.
….
A French diplomatic source said Idriss was expected to press rebel demands for Western arms, including anti-tank and anti-aircraft missiles.

The rebellion’s Western backers have been sceptical of supplying weapons to the opposition, amid fears they could fall into the hands of radical Islamists.

“The priority for the Coalition is to be able to obtain arms for the Free Army, not only because Bashar al-Assad’s regime is receiving enormous amounts of weapons from Russia and Iran and has retaken the initiative on several fronts, but also because there is a need to strengthen the Free Army in the face of jihadist groups,” said Ziad Majed, a professor at the American University of Paris.

But the diplomatic source said Paris would be insisting in the talks on the “political perspective” of resolving Syria’s civil war.
..

Since when Bashar al Assad ask Israel’s opinion? It sounds like an opposition fabrication to pressure the West for weapons.

In any case a safe geographical area for minorities and Sunni moderate will certainly include Damascus and its suburbs. It would be used and developed until the rogue areas are totally cleaned up from Islamists and their allies. This may take a very long time…
Similar areas, like Jounieh north of Lebanon had a huge economical development as a safe area for Christians during the civil war in Lebanon. That’s what happen during civil wars with a sectarian component.
The West of Syria will see an enormous economical growth.

It means killing all the Al-Qaeda/Nusra/FSA criminals in Syria. “Cleaning up” is just a nice word for sending them all to Hell. The government decides that’s who decides. I get the feeling you’re joking with us Sami and knew the answers before you asked.

Syrian government forces have ambushed rebel fighters in a strategic suburb of the capital Damascus, killing at least 49 people, activists said.

The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights on Tuesday reported that the opposition fighters were killed near Adra, a town which saw heavy fighting when Assad’s forces recaptured it from the rebels a few months ago.

The town is located on a route that rebels have been using to smuggle weapons into Damascus

Amal Mutaz Dandashi
Your words are personal insults, the moderator must know that,and you must be banned again.
It is a shame that you are here talking nonsense, we know that you are Mutaz Dandashi and you are SNP and you commented under different monikers,

DAMASCUS, July 23 (KUNA) — Syrian prime minister Wael Al-Halqi said Tuesday his government was keen on implementing its political program in order to address the crisis in the country, which has been ongoing since March 2011.
Al-Halqi, during a meeting with Mukhtar Lamani, chief of staff of the international representative to Syria, said the “Syrians were determined” to implement the political program because it was the “only” solution for the conflict in the country, a government statement said.
He said the Syrian government was ready to attend the Geneva II meeting without previous conditions.
The Syrian government, he added, was open on all international initiatives that would end the conflict but without preconditions or dictations.

Jarba makes more promises to France and re-announces the creation of a provisional government located in Syria within a month ( End August>?).
The similarly announced government headed by Hitto never saw light.

Jarba said he was working to make the coalition more visible in the liberated areas. He would visit areas in the south, including the cradle of the Syrian revolution Deraa, the east of the country as well as refugee camps in Jordan and Turkey.

As part of that process, the coalition will create a 10-person executive council, or provisional government, that would operate within Syria, Jarba said.

“I think within one month it will be set up. This government has to work within the liberated zones despite the security and military difficulties,” he said.

I doubt this will that make ‘perhaps’ Idriss happy. It sounds more like a bait to get the opposition to accept to go to Geneva II with the illusion of having the USA in their pocket. Little do they know.

“White House spokesman Jay Carney told reporters on Tuesday that the goal of the military aid expected to include small arms, ammunition and perhaps anti-tank weapons is to keep the Syrian opposition going against forces aligned with President Bashar al-Assad’s regime.”

Syrian President Bashar al-Assad is not going to lose power unless there is foreign intervention amounting to a full-scale war, according to a leading Middle-East politician.

Iraqi Foreign Minister, Hoshyar Zebari, said with a united army in control of Damascus and the major Syrian cities, Assad “will survive for the foreseeable future”. Mr Zebari, pictured below, is one of the few leaders to be in touch with all parties in the Syrian civil war, including the government and various factions of the opposition, along with their foreign backers.

In an interview with The Independent he expressed pessimism about peace negotiations in Geneva proposed by the US and Russia, but said he believes that the best way forward may be a ceasefire policed by the UN prior to any agreement on a transitional government. He said: “I think it would be possible to do that with strong engagement by the UN to follow through and maybe some international peacekeepers.”
…
Mr Zebari believes it unlikely that the oft-postponed Geneva II conference will take place at all and says that a conference on the sidelines of a UN meeting would not be taken seriously. The opposition still hopes that if it hangs on long enough there will be international intervention to overthrow Mr Assad along the lines of Nato military intervention in Libya in 2011. Mr Zebari said he has always told opposition leaders this is a pipedream.

BEIRUT: Mainly Sunni Syrian opposition rebels in Homs have adopted a new strategy, firing grad missiles into Alawite residential neighborhoods, in an attempt to sow discord between loyal civilians and pro-government militia groups there. The new strategy, according to residents and opposition activists, is being used to prompt Alawite civilians to pressure pro-government and loyalist militia groups to adopt a cease-fire following a blistering two week siege on the rebels in the neighborhoods of Khaldieh and Bab Houd.

While Free Syrian Army representatives and fighters were reluctant to admit the tactic, residents and other FSA and opposition activists have tacitly admitted the new strategy is being used as a desperate attempt to ease the siege on Khaldieh after negotiations for a cease-fire failed.

Obama Supporters Petition to Grant Him Immunity for All Crimes He Committed

Obama supporters in San Diego, California petition to grant the President immunity for any crimes he has committed or will commit while in office. Media analyst and author Mark Dice simply asks random people if they’ll sign a petition to support Obama by granting him immunity for his crimes, and one person right after the other signs it to show support for dear leader.

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